SFS Committee for International Affairs, Komit, has been in Barcelos, Portugal to participate in the 50th European Students' Convention in European Students' Union, ESU and in Oslo, Norway to participate in the 87th Nordic Chairs' Meeting (NOM).
ESC50
From September 21-25, Andreé and Hampus from the International Affairs Committee Komit were in the Portuguese city of Barcelos for the 50th edition of the European Students' Convention (ESC). The event was hosted by our Portuguese sister organization FAIRe and during the days we saw incredible views from the train over the Portuguese mountains, cozy houses in the center of Barcelos or the modern polytechnic college of Cávado and Ave, IPCA.
The theme of this year's convention was the EU's multiannual financial framework and the upcoming Erasmus programme 2028-2034. The programme offered several fruitful panel discussions followed by a question and answer session in which Komit actively participated.
We discussed Erasmus+ where Komit, among other things, raised issues regarding the quality of education in relation to social and economic aspects linked to the relatively low number of Swedish students participating in exchange programs. When the EU Commission's new proposal for Erasmus+ and the upcoming multi-financial framework (MFF) were discussed, both ESU and several of our colleagues raised the fact that Erasmus+ needs more money. Komit also raised questions about whether the Commission's proposal would reduce administrative burdens in the exchange process. The answer to the question was that the proposal entails relief, but with a skeptical attitude as the panel raised that the proposal primarily entails relief for the Commission and not for member states, institutions or individual students. As the proposal will be negotiated in the EU in the coming years, this is an issue that will recur in Komit's work but will also be relevant for SFS's national work as well as all member bodies and individual students.
The last panel was about one of the Commission's latest projects, the EU's Union of Skills. It was a lively discussion where several conflicting aspects were raised. However, it became clear that ESU and its members are more sceptical about the Commission's proposal. From Komit, we mainly highlighted how the objectives of the Union of Skills, in terms of education, will affect academic freedom. We also questioned the fact that from a political perspective, people are trying to control which education programmes individual students should study instead of adopting the perspective where students choose the education they believe will be most beneficial for their future lives. Discussions about the Union of Skills will also remain high on the agenda. Even though there are aspects of the proposal that are good, there are several points that need to be discussed further regarding the education offer, financing but also more fundamental discussions about what education is and the role of academia and other actors in future education. A good example of this was when one of the panelists said that academic education in the future would be broken up and instead become more focused on vocational education.
In addition to panel discussions and seminars, time was also spent on coordination for the European student organizations within the European Students' Union ESU. What common denominators do we have? And what lessons can we learn from each other's advocacy work in the international area, are examples of questions that were asked. To better understand the EU's bureaucracy and decision-making processes, a longer seminar was held where we learned more about politics and influence in the European arena through fictitious legislative proposals.
Finally, the days in Barcelos were also an opportunity for both Komit and our European sister organisations to follow up on what has happened within the European Students' Union since the last time and what is to be expected in the future. Not least, the Swedish delegation had the opportunity to provide input to the ESU's work regarding a future Students' Rights Charter, where a representative from the Council of Europe also participated.
Many thanks to FAIRe for an exciting convention with an interesting and highly topical theme. The Committee's year could not have started in a better way!
NOM87
Nordic Presidents' Meeting (NOM) is a collaboration between the national student organizations of the Nordic and Baltic countries. The goal of NOM is to exchange knowledge and experiences regarding Nordic policy on higher education. The 87th meeting took place in Oslo 2-5 October, where David, Hampus and Matilda participated. The theme of the meeting was “Higher education as social sustainability in a Europe in (crisis) preparedness.”
The days in Oslo were rewarding and gave a good start to the year in Komit and the work with NOM and ESU. We were able to strengthen our good contacts with our Nordic-Baltic colleagues and gained many new and valuable insights into the theme of the meeting.
The days focused heavily on preparedness in all its forms. We had the opportunity to discuss with student unions from other countries their views on preparedness, the role of education and student unions in strengthening a society against disinformation and attacks on democracy, and listen to other unions' action plans in the event of a crisis. The discussions laid the foundation for a workshop where we looked ahead and saw how we can benefit from the lessons learned to develop our preparedness work in the future. The workshop resulted in a joint statement from the student unions in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in which we underline the importance of political investments in preparedness also including higher education, and that students are involved in both national and regional strategic work on preparedness.
During the days we also had the chance to discuss a lot about how NOM as a network can move forward, how we can best support each other and how we can work to increase political impact, both in ESU and in other contexts. We will take the lessons learned from the discussions with us in our work going forward, and look forward to deepening our cooperation with student unions in other countries to build a stronger student movement together.
One of the highlights, besides the political discussions, was the visit to the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, where we were given a tour and a review of Norway's history. It was very educational, and it was especially interesting to hear that the struggle for democracy and representation in politics runs like a common thread through the country's development from its founding to modern times.
Many thanks to the Norwegian Student Organization, NSO, for a very well-organized Nordic chairmen's meeting.
All's Well,
Andreé, David, Hampus and Matilda