On Monday, November 21, the research program was inaugurated Democracy and higher education at Uppsala University. During the inauguration, SFS gave a speech about the role of students in the work for democracy. Read the speech below.
Democracy. For students, it is a natural part of our DNA. Students participate in and contribute to democracy in many ways.
Firstly, it happens through education. By taking part in the knowledge and reflections that research has generated, we are not only strengthened on an individual level, but also by collectively strengthening our skills to manage and administer society. In education, we meet each other to have a critical attitude to difficult issues in dialogue.
Secondly, it happens through the participation of students in the scientific community. For us, student influence in Sweden is an important democratic function. It has a function in that we participate in contributing to and developing the academy, but also in that it prepares us for handling democratic processes in future professional lives. Student influence has varied in form over time.
If we limit ourselves to Sweden, we can see that over a hundred years, student influence has gone from being a function of welfare and social care for students, where student unions provided health, kindergarten, insurance and housing, to being reformed with the expansion of the welfare society into a more formal movement that focuses on students' education and rights.
Our methods have become much more organized thanks to a formal influence in the academic environment. We are part of the collegial environments and take responsibility for the activities together with teachers and TA staff.
During the day, several of the speakers talked about how democracy is not as self-evident if we look around the world. We students also notice this. In many places that are going through crises right now, such as Iran and Ukraine, we have student colleagues who are fighting for their rights. In their fight, we try to contribute with strength in solidarity.
Sometimes it becomes very tangible and moving. This summer we met one of our counterparts from Belarus, a country that is only 100 kilometers from the Swedish border in Ystad. In Belarus, student influence does not exist in formal form. It is stifled. The representative of our counterpart in Belarus had to flee the country because student union activists risk being arrested. So student influence may be a given in Sweden, and in the Nordic countries, but we see that around the world it is not. Students have an important role in the fight for a democratic society.
That said, we would like to express our joy at this initiative and that we were given the great honor of being part of the program's Advisory Board. We are pleased that research is being conducted on this topic. It is needed. There is a lot of research on other parts of our society, schools, organizational theory, administration, law, welfare, etc., but it is good that we are gaining more knowledge about the scientific community, higher education and its role in society.
We believe it makes us stronger, wiser and better equipped to meet the challenges of today and the future.
For our own part, we also appreciate gaining a better understanding of our sector. When we in the higher education sector tackle the sometimes complex and extensive issues of higher education and the role of research in society, it requires a discussion that is based on scientific foundations.