The European Students’ Union – a short introduction

1. The European Students’ Union – a short introduction Presentation for the UASS Summer School 2008 Jens Jungblut ESU Student Union Development Committee

2. What is ESU • The European Students’ Union (ESU) is the umbrella organisation of 49 national unions of students from 38 countries and through these members represents over 10 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.

3. ESU‘s history • Founded in 1982 as the Western European Students Information Bureau (WESIB) • Changed into the European Students Information Bureau (ESIB) • Today called The European Students‘ Union (ESU) • 25th anniversary celebration took place in Lisbon in October 2007

4. Main fields of work • Training activists from National Unions of Students (NUSes) (ie Lisbon Training) • Following and influencing the major educational – political processes in Europe (Lisbon and Bologna Process) • Publications and research (Bologna with students’ eyes, Lisbon with students’ eyes) • Representation of students’ on the European level towards other stakeholders

5. Major events of ESU • Board Meeting: twice a year, decides on budget, elects ESU representatives, decided on policy papers • European Students Convention: twice a year in the country, which holds the EU presidency; always has one general topic with workshops and panel discussions

6. ESU‘s structure Part 1 • Highest decision making body is the board, where all members are represented and which meets two times a year at the Board Meetings • The Board elects all representatives (the so called „Hacks“) • ESU has a new structure since the end of 2007 and the people, who have been elected in May 2008 are the first ones elected in the new structure

7. ESU‘s structure Part 2 • ESU is headed by a chairperson (at the moment Ligia from Romania), a vice-chairperson (Anita from Latvia) and three person executive committee (Bruno from Portugal, Alma from Iceland and Olav from Norway) • ESU has 4 content committees: • The academic affairs committee (4 members) • The social affairs committee (4 members) The administrative affairs committee (2 members) • And the student union development committe (2 members)

8. ESU‘s structure Part 3 • ESU also has Working Groups, which are put in place by the Board and deal with one specific issue; members of the Working Groups are NUSes and not persons • ESU has Working Groups for example dealing with Ukraine, International Cooperation, E-Learning or Finances

9. The Student Union Development Committee (SUDC) • Newly created committee to support the development of student movements within and outside of ESU‘s members • Elected representatives are Kate from Georgia and Jens from Germany, responsible from the side of the Executive committe is Olav from Norway

10. Fields of work of the SUDC in 2008 • Publish a student union development handbook, with an overview over ESU‘s members and articles on specific content issues (ie mobilisation, financing, gender equality) • Conduct study visits to Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina • Conduct trainings (Armenia, Ukraine [together with the Ukraine Working Group]) • Help members of ESU (ie with structural problems)

11. Plans for 2009 • Think about internal support mechanisms for NUSes which are already a member of ESU but face problems • Continue training activists (ESU pool of trainers and experts) • Provide more ESU documents in non-English languages • Help to improve the communication between members and help to update ESU’s online resources (online student union development database)

12. Any questions ??? • Feel free to contact the SUDC at sudc@esu-online.org or Jens at jens@esu-online.org • Or visit ESU‘s web site at www.esu-online.org • Or simply ask your questions now.