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A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and . In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizational activities, representation, and academic support of the membership. It may also be a club.
Students' unions emerged in Europe during the nineteenth century. In the United States, student union often only refers to a physical building owned by the university with the purpose of providing services for students without a governing body. This building is also referred to as a student activity center, although the Association of College Unions International (largely US-based) has hundreds of campus organizational members. Outside the US, student union and students' union more often refer to a representative body, as distinct from a student activity centre building, and may also refer to a building run by that representative body.
Harvard University formed a debating society in 1832. Around the turn of the 20th century, the idea of students' unions emerged at campuses across the eastern United States. The first student union building was Houston Hall built in 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania, which at that time was “part clubhouse and part country estate.”
In some cases, students' unions are run by students, independent of the educational facility. The purpose of these organizations is to represent students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. Students' unions are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students. Depending on the organization's makeup, students can get involved in the union by becoming active in a committee, by attending councils and general meetings, volunteering within a group, service or club run by the union, or by becoming an elected officer.
Some students' unions are politicized bodies, and often serve as a training ground for aspiring . Students' unions generally have similar aims irrespective of the extent of politicization, usually focusing on providing students with facilities, support, and services.
Some students' unions often officially recognize and Asset allocation an annual budget to other organizations on campus. In some institutions, postgraduate students are within the general students' unions, whereas in others they have their own postgraduate representative body. In some cases, graduate students lack formal representation in student government.
Australian student unions typically provide such services as eateries, small retail outlets (e.g., news agencies), student media (e.g., campus newspapers), advocacy, and support for a variety of social, arts, political, recreational, special interest and sporting clubs and societies. Most also operate specialized support services for female, LGBT, international and indigenous students. Many expressed concerns over the introduction of voluntary student unionism (VSU) in 2006.
In 2011, the Government passed legislation to allow universities to charge students a compulsory service fee to fund amenities such as sporting facilities, childcare and counselling, as well as student media and "advocating students' interests".
The National Union of Students of Australia represents post school students at a national level; the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is the umbrella organisation for postgraduate students' unions.
During its action period ASU has formed stable structure, presented new suggestions about student policy to appropriate bodies, made close relations with international and regional student organizations, prepared new action plan according to the universities-students-companies' relations in Azerbaijan.
ASU considered international relations very important. For the first time ASU's delegates were participants of the First Asia IAESTE Forum in Shanghai during 12–15 November 2009. After that forum ASU established close relations with IAESTE which is one of the biggest student exchange organizations. As a result of relations on 21 January 2010 ASU was accepted a member of IAESTE. The union gained right to represent Azerbaijan students in IAESTE. That membership was the union's first success on international level. During 20–27 January Azerbaijan Students Union was accepted as associative member of IAESTE in 64th Annual Conference in Thailand. Azerbaijan Students Union has been a full member of European Students' Union until 2015.
Membership in different universities has different functions. Some universities may give the membership a task of recording the students' attendance and the complex grades. Student associations of Chinese universities are mostly under the leadership of Communist Youth League of China, which to a large extent limit its function as an organization purely belonging to students themselves.
The official student union in junior and senior high school is usually called Organisasi Siswa Intra Sekolah (Intra-School Student Organization, abbreviated as OSIS), is formed by the school. A general election to choose the leader is usually held every year. OSIS organizes the school's extracurricular activities such as music shows and art gallery ( pentas seni/pensi).
The student union in universities is commonly called Badan Eksekutif Mahasiswa (Student Executive Board, abbreviated as BEM), though the official name could be vary between universities or faculties. Most of BEMs are affiliated with several national unions, such as All-Indonesian BEM (BEM SI) or BEM Nusantara (BEMNUS).
There is no nationwide student union in Japan that participates in university administration or university management.
The registered students of the University, other than external students, shall together constitute a body to be known as the Students' Union of the University, and the Union shall elect a Students' Representative Council. (Article 48 Section 1-2, Universities and University Colleges Act)A general election is held every year, usually in November (With the exception of University of Malaya in July), to elect representatives to MPP. The percentage of voter turn-outs are usually high (70 to 95 percent) largely due to enforcements from the universities' management which, at the same time, acts as the Election Committee. Amendments on the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 in 2019 allows students to be fully in-charge of the Election Committee.
Every year, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education would set meetings and arrange programmes with all MPPs. Nevertheless, each MPP has their own autonomous right to govern their own membership. The size of MPP differs from each university, from as little as 12 to as many as 50, which may include non-associate members from student leaders representing their respective student body. All MPP members are part-time and unpaid officers.
In 2011, Universiti Sains Malaysia established Students' Consultative Assembly (), the first student parliament established and the oldest of its kind in Malaysia, to involve participation of more student leaders in decision and policy making as well as to establish a legislative branch in its Students' Union system instead of having the only executive branch. A university student parliament is composed of MPP members and other elected or appointed student leaders representing their respective student body, along with the presence of the management's and students' representative as observers. In 2020, Universiti Utara Malaysia revived the Students' Parliament () as the legislative branch in its Students' Union system which was left dormant since its last meeting at 2013 and the next meeting since its revival was held in April 2021. As at May 2021, 8 public universities in Malaysia had their student parliament established.
However, there were several disputes regarding the autonomy of the MPP, since executive decisions were depending upon the advice of the Students' Affairs Department (), especially among several students' rights activists, who insists that the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (AUKU) to be abolished and replaced with a new act to 'revive' students' autonomy on administration as in the 1960s'.
Previous to 1998 membership of Students' Associations (pep) was compulsory at all public Tertiary Education providers (universities, polytechnics and colleges of education). In 1997 the centre-right National party proposed the Voluntary Student Membership amendment to the Education act which would have made membership of Students' Associations voluntary at all Tertiary Education Providers.
However the National Party relied on support from the centrist New Zealand First party to pass legislation. The New Zealand First party preferred that Tertiary Students themselves choose whether their provider should be voluntary or compulsory and pushed through a compromise to the amendment that allowed for a Compulsory Vs Voluntary referendum to be held at every public Tertiary Education Provider. The amendment also allowed for subsequent referendums which could not be held until at least two years had passed since the previous referendum and only if a petition was signed by 10% of the student populace.
The first wave of referendums were held in 1999, in which several Polytechnics and two Universities (the University of Waikato and the University of Auckland) elected to become voluntary. In 2002 a second referendum was held at the University of Waikato and students choose to return to compulsory student membership. Similar referendums at Auckland University in 2001, 2003 and 2005 have all elected to retain voluntary student membership.
Most of New Zealand Tertiary students' associations are confederated under the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations.
Student councils, especially those in universities, have a history of activism in the local and national level due to various socio-political and economic issues, with the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune being two of many examples.
Aside from student unions, students are further represented in overall decision-making of their respective university's governing body through the student regent (e.g., UP Office of the Student Regent for the students of the University of the Philippines System). The student regent is a consequence of tireless and continuous struggle of the students to be represented in the highest policy-making body of their respective universities such as the school board where the student regent has voting powers, among others. Student regents are very common for universities with campuses in different locations and most especially in state universities and colleges.
On the other hand, these student unions are also connected throughout the country through various alliances or networks such as the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), which serves as a nationwide alliance of student councils/governments/unions committed to the advancement of the students' democratic rights and welfare since its establishment in 1957.
In 2012 the first student union in Libya, after 42 years of suppression, was founded. Students from Al Mimona Ebem Alharth school public school in Tripoli-Libya successfully established the union and promoted for other schools around the country to do the same. The founder Alaa Amed received local media attention for this achievement.
While higher education and student activism might vary depending on the country the National Association of Nigerian Students' is an organization with well over 50 university union across the nation.
Tunisia has many students unions including the Union Générale des Étudiants de Tunisie founded in 1952, and Union Générale Tunisienne des Étudiants founded in 1985.
Every university has a student union (In Danish language, Studenterråd). Membership is not mandatory. The student unions are funded by the university and the Ministry of Science on the basis of the percentage of votes received every year at the university election. The student union is autonomous, its internal life organized by its by-laws. The student unions are responsible for all representation of the students and elect the student members of different administrative organs. They usually coordinate and finance the activities of smaller, more specialized student organizations. For the financing of their activities, some student unions exact a membership fee and/or engage in different businesses.
In the Ministry of Culture institutions there are also local student organisations. In the Ministry of Education institutions, The student activities are very much related to a student division of the Labor Union in the different areas. For instance, the teachers' students are organised in the national labor union for teachers and so forth.
The Upper-Secondary schools (In Danish language, Gymnasier), It is in Denmark a law that there has to be a student council at the Upper-Secondary schools. The student councils are organized in the following organisations:
There are also class-struggle student unions such as the Solidaires Étudiant-e-s (formed in January 2013 through the fusion of the former organizations SUD Étudiant and Féderation syndicale étudiante (FSE)) which refuse to cooperate with the universities' direction and work to organize students. Or radical-right student organizations like the Student Cockade
In the grandes écoles, the premium league in the French higher education system, students are generally members of the official Student Office (Bureau des étudiants or Bureau des élèves) in charge of the organization of social activities and sports events. The constitutions of these societies, which work in close partnership with the school administration, usually prevent union members from running for executive positions in order to keep the school independent from political groups liable to harm the school's prestige.
Modern French high school unionism appeared after the Alain Devaquet Law Project which had sparked a mass mobilization of high school and university students in November and December 1986 : In 1987 the was founded. This organization was the first to claim syndicalism. It is the oldest French high school students union still in operation.
Others high school students unions referring to syndicalism will follow: in 1994, the national high school students' union was created after the social movement against the professional integration contract bill. In 2009, the and then in 2016, the National High School Student Movement, were born out of a split with the national high school student union.
The structure of a student union is rather simple and comprises two bodies: The General Students' Assembly (Greece) and the board of directors. The general assembly consists of all student-members of the union. It takes place on a regular basis and is the only decision-making body. During the general assembly, many topics of student interest are discussed and the decisions are taken after open vote. The board of directors makes sure that the decisions of the general assembly will be materialized. Moreover, the members of the board of directors, among which is the union's president, participate in various university administrative bodies as representatives of all students in the union.
Every year in early spring the student elections take place nationwide, during which students vote for their representatives. All student unions in Greece are members of the "National Student Union of Greece" (ΕΦΕΕ – Εθνική Φοιτητική Ένωση Ελλάδας).
National Union of Students-Union of Students in Ireland (NUS-USI), the student movement in Northern Ireland was formed in 1972 by bilateral agreement between the UK National Union of Students (NUS) and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), to address the particular problems of representing students in Northern Ireland.
Lastly, the Netherlands has an (unofficial) student union for its students that study abroad: Netherlands Worldwide Students or simply NEWS.
The Netherlands is also home to an unusual case of student representation in which a local political party completely run by student gained seats during local town hall elections, STIP.
The unions are usually governed by a general assembly of elected representatives. Students' unions generally provide School Counselor services to its members and publishes their own magazines or . Large universities often have several students' unions, where the smaller students' unions only provide basic services. Larger students' unions often own and run their own facilities at the university such as shops, restaurants and night clubs.
National Union of Students-Union of Students in Ireland (NUS-USI), the student movement in Northern Ireland was formed in 1972 by bilateral agreement between the UK National Union of Students (NUS) and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), to address the particular problems of representing students in Northern Ireland.
Under the Education Act 1994, the role and purpose of students' unions is defined as being "promoting the general interests of its members as students". This has limited the ability of students' unions to campaign on issues not directly related to their members as students, such as Apartheid and the 1984–85 miners' strike.
Most students' unions are charged by their membership to protect their best interests at the university, municipal, provincial and federal government levels. Advocating for support from the provincial government for areas such as lower tuition fees, support for sexual and gender based violence, and financial support, as well as creating position papers and providing research to support various causes. Many students' unions in Canada are members of one of the national student organizations, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) or the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Those that belong to the CFS at the national level also belong to the CFS at the provincial level. Those that do not belong to the CFS may belong to a provincial student organization like the New Brunswick Student Alliance, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance ( OUSA), the College Student Alliance, StudentsNS (formerly known as ANSSA), the Alliance of British Columbia Students, the Council of Alberta University Students, or the Alberta Students Executive Council. In Quebec, the provincial student organizations are the Quebec Federation of University Students ( Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec or FEUQ) for university students, college students are represented by the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec or FECQ, while the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante or ASSE includes students from both the undergraduate and graduate levels of education.
Different provinces have different rules governing student unions. In British Columbia under section 27.1 of the University Act, student unions may only raise or rescind mandatory student union fees through a democratic referendum of the membership. Once fees are passed through this mechanism, the board of governors of the respective institutions are then required to remit those fees to the student union, and may only interfere in the internal affairs of the student union if it fails to complete annual audits of its finances, giving these student unions strong autonomy over their institutions. In Ontario, the autonomy of student unions is set by standards outlined by each institution, giving university administrators a broader scope of powers over the finances of student unions. Ontario educational institutions may only revoke collecting fees on behalf of the students' union if they are in contravention of the Corporations Act of Ontario. Other provinces have governing acts specific to the institutions, such as The University of Manitoba Students' Union Act.
Students' Unions in Canada typically offer a variety of services such as LGBTQ2+ groups, Women's Centre's, Food Banks, Bicycle Repair Shops, Campus First Aid teams, Walksafe programs, Peer Support groups and Racialized Student Support, among other offerings and independent student groups. Unions also generally offer health and dental plans, termly bus passes at costs negotiated with the local transit authority, and other student assistance programs. Funding options are also a part of many student unions' including endowment funds, funding for student clubs and for orientation. Students' unions are also programmers for the beginning of term events such as Welcome Week, Frost Week and other events throughout the term that provide social connections and wellness for students. Advocacy is also a main portion of what a students' union does including connecting with the university or College to advocate for changes to programs, co-op, and affordability. They also advocate for housing and tenant rights, safety, quality of education, academic rights, transportation concerns, accessibility, diversity and equity and health and wellness.
Jesuit student groups played an important role in Mexico's history, particularly in opposing the imposition of socialist education in Mexico in the 1930s. Leaders from the Unión Nacional de Estudiantes Católicos (UNEC) had long-term importance in Mexico's political history, since a number of them helped form the conservative National Action Party (Mexico).David Espinosa, Jesuit Student Groups, the Universidad Iberoamericana, and Political Resistance in Mexico, 1913–1979. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 2014.
This society has existed since 2003 and now has 190 members, where only one third are Brazilian. The other two thirds are people who are just interested in Brazilian politics, famous parties and culture. This is one of the societies that students may join if they so wish. The society has social events and it hosts lectures. They also have a Brazilian discussion group on a weekly basis in order to discuss current events.
The Student Union's main activity is to widespread and include a variety of activities portraying its worldview regarding the students' role, responsibilities and benefits within the Israeli society. The union is composed of professional departments enacting the decisions made for, and with the student community, in addition to local student unions in each of the higher education institutes. The central role of the union is to protect the student's status and rights, while strengthening its social purpose as the leading organization driving lively activities among the students.
By the 2020s, two new attempts at a student government at the global level had emerged, the Global Student Forum led by a group of continental and supra-campus student unions and the Global Student Government that comprised an assortment of student unions and international subject-based student governments. In 2024, the Global Student Forum and the Global Student Government joined forces under the banner of the former.
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