Students’ rights and student governance
All students at Stockholm University have the right to influence their education and study situation. Stockholm University Student Union (SUS) makes sure that the university respects your rights, and we also support your legal right to influence your education!
On this page, you will find information about your rights, how student governance works at Stockholm University, and how you can influence your education and study situation!
If you have questions about student rights or student governance, you can contact SUS’s PhD student and student ombuds.
What rights do students and PhD students have?
Students have plenty of rights, and they are regulated by the Higher Education Ordinance. If you are accused of cheating, if the university isn’t following the course syllabus or if your study environment is unacceptable, as a few examples, SUS’s ombuds can help out.
You can also find out more about your student or PhD students rights. What happens if the university won’t answer your emails or if you want to appeal against a grade?
This is student governance
Student governance is part of your rights as a student. At Stockholm University, the student governance is practiced in several different ways: By individual students who contact their teacher or fill in a course evaluation, but also by elected student representatives in decision-making and preparatory bodies at the university at the departmental, faculty and central level.
The legislative right to student governance is what gives student unions at the universities of Sweden not only the right but the responsibility to elect student representatives and to represent all students. How this right and responsibility is to be handled is regulated by the Higher Education Ordinance and the Swedish Higher Education Act. Student governance at Stockholm University (SU), specifically, is regulated by the Regulations for student influence. The regulations include clear instructions about how student representatives are appointed, what responsibility the university has for student governance, and what responsibility Stockholm University Student Union (SUS) and other student unions have.
At SU, the presidum (President and Vice President) of Stockholm University Student Union (SUS) represents all of the university’s students in various meeting forums at a central level, one example of such a forum is the University Board. The presidium’s right to represent all students is also regulated by the Higher Education Ordinance and the Swedish Higher Education Act.
As a student at the university, you exercise your right to influence in everyday life, for example when you fill out a course evaluation (something every course and every course syllabus must have), or express opinions that are related to your education in any other way, in order to improve your education and your study situation.
Student representatives
Apart from the individual student’s influence, and apart from SUS’s presidium’s representation at a central level, student governance is also practiced in all decision-making and preparatory bodies at the university at the departmental, faculty and central level. Student representatives represent larger groups of students in all those bodies at the university. A student representative is elected by the students in student and PhD student councils, faculty councils, or central council, and go on to represent the students at their department, their faculty, or the whole university.
Everyone who studies at SU can candidate and be elected as student representatives. Issues that the student representatives focus on can be matters such as course literature, the formation of courses and programs, study environment, equal rights or labor market connections in educations.
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According to the Swedish Higher Education Act students are given the legal right to influence and affect their study situation. Why does the Swedish Parliament consider it important that students have the right to affect their education and their study situation?
The current Swedish Higher Education Act was written 1992. The proposition, which was the basis for the 1992 Swedish Higher Education Act, emphasizes the increased democratization of universities that occurred throughout the 1960s.
“Europe saw an increased influx of students throughout the 1960s, this – combined with a general radicalization of the politics of the time – led to the well-known unrest among students, mainly in Germany and France. The governments of the concerned countries introduced various reforms in an attempt to calm the intermittently chaotic student body. The significant democratization of the universities’ administrations was carried out through such reforms increasing influence for students and employees in various decision-making bodies” [our translation]
It is during the 1960’s that the modern form of student governance was developed, in Sweden as well as the rest of Europe. This is reflected in Sweden’s introduction of legislation giving the students the right to be involved in the decisions concerning their education and their study situation. Student governance becomes an important part of the development of the society as a whole – in the journey towards a knowledge-based society. To be able to include new groups of students, to make higher education accessible to all, all new students must be invited and included in discussions about what education is and how it can be improved. Spaces need to be created where students and teachers can come together and improve upon the quality of education, and together make decisions about how the University should function and be governed.
So next time you fill out a course evaluation, talk to your teacher about any uncertainties about your exam questions or raise your hand to point out that the course literature is dated, then you are in good company and on safe ground. Student governance is a legislative right so that you and every other student, both those who have studied before you and those who come after, will help the University to become better. Together we create world-class studies!
Your influence – through a council or party
Photo: José Luna de Azevedo
At the university, there are plenty of councils and student union parties that all contribute to student governance. If you want to influence your education and studies, you can contact a coucil or party that you think will suit you. The councils elect student representatives for the decision-making and preparatory bodies at the university, as one example.
Student councils have more impact than all others at the university. Students gather in the separate councils to identify issues, influence SU and raise issues that are important to students.
The PhD student councils identify issues, influence SU and raise issues that are important to student and PhD students. Within SUS there are about 40 PhD councils that have regular meetings.
The faculty councils gather representatives from all student councils and PhD student councils at their respective faculties. The councils work as forum for discussion and information exchange where students and PhD students can coordinate their work at the faculty level. The faculty council appoints representatives for the faculty’s preparatory and decision-making bodies, raise the student and PhD student councils’ faculty-related issues, as well as act as a channel for information between the faculty’s forums and the student and PhD student councils.
The central councils gather representatives from all faculty councils in order to get a common understanding of what issues are important for all parts of campus. The councils appoint student representatives for the university’s preparatory and decision-making forums at the central level.
Student Union Parties
According to the Swedish Higher Educations Act, a student union, must be a democratically governed organization and its democratic mission is fulfilled when all students that are covered by the field of work of the student union also have the right to join the student union. The description also includes that all those who are members of the student union have the right to elect representatives for the student union assembly. Every year, SUS holds a student union election, in which the members get to vote for the different student union parties and their representatives. Apart from voting in the student union election, members of SUS can join a student union party or start their own student union party.