A new record: over 400 applicants for student representatives’ positions!

Last autumn, we sought student representatives for the steering groups of degree programmes for the next term, as usual. This time, however, the number of applicants was larger than ever before! This is particularly important right now with degree programmes preparing curricula for the future during this term. Curricula define key components of the framework for teaching, such as degree structures, study modules, their contents, completion methods and learning outcomes.

The calls for applications were open for around a month, but the entire application and selection process for student representatives in HYY takes the whole autumn. The selection proposals, for instance, are made by faculty-specific selection committees made up of students from each faculty. Members for these selection committees are already sought in August. The calls for applications to the actual steering groups were carried out in September–October.

Preparing and conducting a major communication campaign naturally also takes its own time. When selecting student representatives, we are carrying out one of our statutory duties. This being the case, we obviously want to succeed in the task as well as possible at all stages and in all aspects of the process.

By the time the calls for applications ended, we had received a total of 405 applications. The previous record from 2018 was 314 applications. The large number of applications was also reflected in the percentage of positions filled. At 82%, vice members included, this was around ten percentage points higher than the previous record. We had a total of 381 positions open for applications and managed to fill 316 of them. This means that some steering groups clearly had more applicants for the positions, whereas others did not get enough applicants to fill all positions for actual and vice members.

After briefly celebrating the smashed records, we started considering possible reasons for the success. We believe that at least the following factors helped us succeed: Our cooperation with the University’s student communication team was closer than before. In practice, people involved in communication in HYY and at the University held meetings, discussed what could be done better and then carried out their plan. When communicating about the application process, we also emphasised the importance of curriculum work to both our members and organisations. Finally, we identified one more key factor that has increased students’ motivation to apply: the University started paying a meeting fee of 35 euros to the student representatives on steering groups. We wish to thank the University very much for rewarding student representatives for their invaluable work – now in monetary form, too.

The record number of applications also resulted in an exceptionally large amount of work for the selection committees as they assessed the applications. Massive thanks to all our volunteers and everyone who applied to become a student representative. If university democracy is the cornerstone of the Finnish higher education system, then student representatives are the cornerstone of university democracy.

Despite all this, there are still vacant positions in some steering groups of degree programmes. You can check whether we are still seeking representatives to the steering group of your degree programme in the halloped.fi system! The supplementary call for applications will end at 11.59 pm on 10 February.

Riku-Petteri Kyllönen
Specialist in Educational Policy
riku-petteri.kyllonen@hyy.fi
050 325 5202