Student influence

What can I do?

There are many ways in which you can influence your education and you working environment/study environment.

• The most direct is your interaction with other students, teachers and other staff.
• Complete the course evaluation that takes place after every course. This gives you the chance to express your opinion on what was good and what could be better.
• Become a member of the students' union. You will then be able to influence who is appointed as student representatives and what issues they should focus on.

Find out more under the headings Course evaluations and Education monitoring.

What do the student unions do?

A students union is an association that works to safeguard the interests of students. The main aim of the students unions is to work to achieve high-quality courses and study programmes. The unions also work to ensure that all students have good conditions for their studies and that the years they spend studying are as good as possible. Find out more under the heading Students' unions.

What does SLU do?

Educational matters are handled at all levels of the university’s organisation. There is a programme committee which discusses and decides on issues relating to your education. There are student representatives on all the committees, councils and boards that deal with educational issues at SLU. Find out more about the various bodies within SLU that work on educational issues and student welfare issues.

What does the law say?

'Students shall be entitled to exert influence over the courses and study programmes at higher education institutions. Higher education institutions shall endeavour to enable students to play an active role in the continued development of courses and study programmes (Swedish Higher Education Act, Chapter 1, Section 4a). The students are entitled to representation when decisions or preparations are made that have bearing on their courses or programmes or the situation of students.' (Swedish Higher Education Act, Chapter 2, Section 7).

The Swedish Ordinance on Student Unions (2009:769) contains provisions relating to who appoints the students’ representatives. At SLU, this works as follows: Sluss (Joint Committee of Student Unions at SLU) decides jointly, on the basis of the proposals of the unions, who should be the student representatives on SLU’s bodies at faculty and general university level. A list of the current student representatives can be found on the Sluss website.