Komit has been in Paris with the European Students' Union (ESU) for Board Meeting 82 (BM82). During the week-long meeting, Komit, on behalf of SFS, has taken part in and followed up on ESU's activities, presented the European Students Convention (ESC45) which is planned to be arranged in Sweden and elected elected representatives to ESU. In true organizational spirit, we have discussed and revised political steering documents. BM82 with an introductory seminar for the exchange of experiences was held between 23 and 28 May 2022.
The 2022/23 operating year will be led by Matteo Vespa from Italy together with Katrina Sproģe from Latvia and Horia Onita from Romania. The executive committee (EC) includes two representatives from SFS partner organizations: Tór Marni Weihe from the Faroe Islands and Emily MacPherson from Norway.
As at SFSFUM, a budget and plan of work (PoW) were adopted. Next year, ESU will work with the European University, support for Ukraine and development of internal operations, among other things. SFS is critical of the scope of the plan of work and called for parts to be deleted. Partly because of tendencies towards unhealthy organizational culture where much must be done in a limited time and with limited resources, which contributes to burnout, and partly because SFS believes that certain issues are of a local, regional or national nature. We believe that ESU should primarily work in areas where they as an organization have a real and actual opportunity to influence higher education in Europe.
Contrary to SFS's position, there are drivers within ESU for a broader focus area. SFS worked under the Ministry of Education to ensure that ESU does not prioritize issues that are not directly related to higher education. Unfortunately, ESU has once again chosen to adopt a comprehensive business plan in our opinion.
Furthermore, revised versions of the following political documents were considered and adopted:
- Revision of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy
- Revision of the Introduction to ESU's Policies for Higher Education
- Statement on Brain Circulation (Brain Drain)
In ESU there are also “Internal motions (IM)” which are similar to internal rules for ESU meetings. For example, there are IMs that regulate how long an IM can be valid, rules for how processes are carried out, and then more light-hearted motions that prescribe, for example, singing or movement activities after a certain period of time or a certain moment.
On the initiative of SFS, a previously expired IM was also adopted stating that under special circumstances the meeting should sing “here comes Pippi Longstocking”. The background to the motion is that the Swedish delegation is often the first to arrive on the morning of the meeting. With the aim of drawing attention to the Swedish spirit of punctuality, the meeting should sing Pippi if the meeting does not start within a certain time. The IM applies to a maximum of eight BMs and during the pandemic Pippi Longstocking ceased to apply. Komit has chosen to wait until the physical meeting and we now have an IM again that gets the participants up in the morning!
Another hotly discussed issue during the meeting was North Macedonia's possible membership in the ESU. Earlier in the spring, the ESU study visit team (SVT) had gone on a study visit and in its report it recommended an extension of the trial period to a maximum of 2 years, something that the SFS also voted in favor of. The outcome was as proposed.
The meeting was not completed on time and will be concluded online within a week or so. What we see in Europe and the rest of the world is an attempt to return and recover from the corona pandemic. Internationalization and mobility have suffered a setback when physical travel was limited. This is also stated in several reports, the most recent from the Foundation for Internationalization, STINT.
Finally, Komit not only participated in the BM in Paris, but also celebrated ESU's 40th anniversary on the BM's last evening! This event was attended by current and former SFS members.
We would like to thank SFS's French counterpart, the Fédération des Associations Générales Etudiantes (FAGE), who hosted the BM and the event!
Comet 2022
Linn Svärd, Ismail Bazine, Moa Johansson, Gustav Ekström and Henrietta Berner.