European Students' Union

European Students' Union
European Students' Union
European Students' Union.svg
Institution see member list
Location Rue de la Sablonniere 20, Brussels, Belgium
Established 1982
Members 45 (38 Countries)
Affiliations see member list
Executive Committee Allan Päll, CHAIR (Estonia) (2011-2012), Karina Ufert, VICE-CHAIR (Lithuania) (2011-12), Kaloyan Kostadinov (Bulgaria) (2011-2012), Rok Primožič (Slovenia) (2011-2012), Nevena Vuksanovic (Serbia) (2011-2012)
Website http://www.esu-online.org/

European Students' Union (ESU) formerly known as ESIB - The National Unions of Students in Europe - is the umbrella organisation of 45 national unions of students from 37 countries and through these members represents over 11 million students. The aim of ESU is to represent and promote the educational, social, economic and cultural interests of students at a European level towards all relevant bodies and in particular the European Union, Council of Europe and UNESCO. ESU is representing the voice of the students in Europe by being a consultative member to the Bologna Process. ESU is also a full member of the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the ESU nominee for 2006 was elected the president of the YFJ

Contents

History

On the 17th October 1982, seven National Unions of Students (NUSes) from The United Kingdom, Sweden, Iceland, France, Denmark, Norway and Austria gathered in Stockholm to create WESIB, the Western European Students Information Bureau. In February 1990, WESIB dropped the “W” to become the European Student Information Bureau following the political upheaval in Europe at the time. In 1992 the name was changed into ESIB – the National Unions of Students in Europe. This refelected the recognition of the changing mission of ESIB from just an information sharing organisation to political organisation that represented the views of students to European institutions. In May 2007 the name changed to European Students' Union (ESU).

Over the years the office of ESU has moved around Europe and was first hosted by the member NUSes. Following the establishment of WESIB in Stockholm the office was based in the SFS Office in Sweden from 1982 until 1985, funded by a grant by the Swedish Government. By 1985 the grant was running low and so NUS UK offered to host WESIB in their London headquarters. In 1988 the office moved to the ÖH offices in Vienna and remained there until 2000, when it was decided that for reasons of being near the European institutions the office should move to Brussels and was hosted by VVS.

Structures

The highest structure of ESU is the Board Meeting, bringing together representatives from all the National Unions of Students it represents. The Board Meeting sets the policy direction of the organisation, and elects members to see to run the organisation. There are currently 17 elected members, formed into an executive committee, four content committees and one cross committee with members from the other committees. These are:

Executive Committee

Responsible for the political direction, day-to-day running and overall responsibility for the organisation, the Executive Committee is composed of a chair, a vice-chair and three other members . It works according to a workplan (as with all other structures) which is set by the board meeting, and is accountable to the Board Meeting for its implementation.

Academic Affairs Committee

The Academic Affairs Committee has four members who deal with issues such as quality assurance in education, ECTS, qualification frameworks, student centered learning and many others that directly have to do with education. It represents European students in various groups working on the Bologna process and oversees the bi-annual publication Bologna with Student Eyes.

Social Affairs Committee

The four person Social Affairs Committee is tasked with social affairs in higher education. This includes questions of access to higher education, financial affairs of students, health, accommodation, work and so on. The committee represents ESU within groups working on social affairs both in the Bologna process and the Lisbon strategy.

Student Union Development Committee

The Student Union Development committee is made up of two members and concerned with the development of the European students movement, both in general and in individual countries. It assists students in countries where the student movement lacks a strong position in society and helps build the capacity of the student unions which are members of ESU. The committee also oversees study visits and publishes a handbook on student union development.

Committee for Internal Development

This two person committee deals with the internal structures of ESU, including the financing and support for members and elected representatives as well as being charged with creating an overall communications strategy for the organization.

Gender Equality Cross Committee

The only cross committee within ESU is made up of one member from each of the other committees and has the overall task of mainstreaming gender equality into all of ESUs work as well as increasing awareness of gender issues both with in ESU and amongst the member unions.

Full members

Candidate Members

  • ESU does not have candidate members at the moment (January 2011)

Associate organisations

See also

External links


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