Wonkhe are experts in higher education, exploring the key issues affecting students across universities and supporting student unions through training and insight. Recently, I had the opportunity to join their Western Europe tour alongside representatives from UK universities.
The trip aimed to build connections with European institutions and learn from their cultures, best practices, and ideas to bring back to the UK. Over five days, we visited three universities or student unions each day, travelling through six countries by bus — braving snowy conditions and temperatures as low as -6°C.
In previous years, Officers have visited other unions in Europe and North America.
What are they focusing on in Western Europe?
St Gallen, Switzerland
This University has 10,000 students but was built for 5000.It’s Student Union is run by an executive board of 6 and has a student parliament of elected students. The standout thing about this union was their “Start week” where they host a “grill and chill” for 2000 people. Their ‘campus app’ allows students to follow their clubs and rate their lecturers. University clubs could be credited to the degree.
Zürich, Switzerland
This University has 26,000 students, 3 campuses. For their Freshers, they host a Freshers Party run by 300 volunteers with 5000 visitors to the campus, there are bars selling pre-mixed cocktails hosted by student associations (clubs and societies) and they can keep the profits from the bar. Proximity to the alps means ski weekends are a popular society event. There are academic focus groups run by the department for students who are not as confident. When study fees were rising 2x for Swiss and 4x for foreign students, their protests to this made national news.
Strasbourg, France
This Student Union does a lot for its students in terms of basic needs. Their temporary housing scheme helped 73 students in the last year by setting them up with a social worker or housing them temporarily. They have a shop for student beneficiaries to access free menstrual products and groceries at 10% of the price, and a thrift shop, 10% of the retail price. At Uni Restaurants there is a 1 euro meal option for students with access to a grant.
Karlsruhe, Germany
This Student Unions Office was in a storage container. They have a student parliament, and votes correspond to seats, their parliament elects Officers. Their top issue is the fee increase for international students per semester. Their second is Climate change and reducing paper. Their third is improving life and city problems. They fund 30 min free on bicycles and a subsidy on housing.
Saarland University, Germany
This University has 16,300 students. Their Advisory committee on sustainability wants no cars in future on campus and they have therefore closed a car park. They have a student run law clinic. Their student body elects Student parliament, and they elect Officers. They support free 5 appointment counselling for students from psychiatrists and have supported 782 students and 3,528 counselling session in the last year.
Luxembourg
This student union supports secondary school students as well as University students. Everyone can join their monthly online meetings and members can vote. Sports are free for students and staff. They run 10+ health and wellbeing classes each semester.They have a Certificate in student engagement and leadership to recognise student volunteer activities.
Antwerp, Belgium
We visited the Officers at the University. They are unpaid. There is a student council where every faculty appoints one student and they are there to “defend their subject”.
The second place we visited was STAN, Student Antwerp. They believe, “to study is to be allowed to experiment in life” and they have student organisations. They organise a music festival and they recently stopped doing magazines because of paper being thrown out. They host a Moving forward project which brings together 150 companies for housing.
Enschede, Netherlands
We visited Twente University and their Student Union. They have 150 associations and they act as the “umbrella” of all the associations and every 6 weeks they meet with umbrellas of associations. They have rooms for societies to use and “look after your friend training” given by student trainers. They host a “Kick-in” for 9 days which they spend 600,000 euros on. Another of their big events is groups running 100km across 2 days. Entrepreneurship is a big part of the University and student union, Just eat and booking.com were created by students from this Uni.
What do we do?
By comparison we have 30,000 students. We have societies, around 300, which are managed by our Activities team and contacted via email or weekly drop ins. We have a society hardship fund for students to access societies. We host a Welcome Week in September and Give it a Go events year round. One of our Officers introduced the Community Fridge and the Super Savour kitchen meals. We have an Advice Service and Wellbeing Cupboard. Our teams run a Community Café and students can come to us for funding and guidance to bring ideas and campaigns to life. We support academic representation. We are data-led, and have lots of surveys for students to tell us what matters most to them. We have EDI consultants and postgrad representation. We have five Officers currently lobbying the University and the city and government in different areas of student life. More importantly, we have a campus cat!
What could we be doing differently?
Would you like to get involved as a volunteer? Would you like more recognition for volunteering? Would you like to see a car-less campus? Are there cheaper options you’d like to see on campus? Are there any more events you’d like tosee?
I know I’m coming away from this trip keen to see how we can implement cost-of-living initiatives into societies, how we can be more digitally savvy and how to work on initiatives we currently have such as the community fridge and embedding student voice. I have more confidence in my lobbying and motivation to see out the end of my term with some more wins for students.