Principles and Practice of Student
Engagement in Quality Assurance:
ENQA’s Perspectives and Finnish Example
22.7.2013 Tokyo
Helka Kekäläinen, Ph.D.
Secretary General1

WHY? - Conceptual changes
 Learning has replaced teaching as the preferred education paradigm.
 Student is perceived as the creator of knowledge.
 The responsibility of learning, including evaluating his or her learning
process, is transferred to the student.
 Education also aims at personal development. Inclusion, participationand ability to critically assess oneself, are necessary prerequisites forthe achievement of transferable skills and personal development.
 Higher education contributes to the development of a democraticsociety => input is sought from everyone involved.
 Knowledge Society: future higher education has been described asrecurring, situational and initiated by students, challenging institutional
control of education and affecting the evaluation of education.
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ENQA’s Perspectives
ENQA – the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
ESG – Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European
Higher Education Area
The strategy, policy and procedures for internal QA of institution shouldinclude a role for students. The quality assurance of programmes and awards

are expected to include participation of students. External review processes
should include participation of students and also, the external assessment
group of experts should include, as appropriate, a student member. The
expert panel of ENQA coordinated external reviews of member agency will

always include a student member, proposed by the European Students’
Union (ESU).
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Classification of student participation
1. Student as an Information provider
2. Student as an Actor
3. Student as an Expert

4. Student as a Partner4

History________________________________________________________How did Finnish Students become suchimportant players in Higher education?

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National Student union - SYL National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) wasestablished in 1921 by 2 local student unions.
 Represented Finnish students at international meetings.
 Already at the 1930’s SYL organised international student andtrainee exchange and had active co-operation with its neighbouring
countries.
 Until the WWII international activities were the major priority in SYL
but afterwards social welfare and education politics became more
important. SYL has always been actively involved and taken initiativein all matters concerning students and education, for example
student health services, housing, study support and grant system,
environmental issues and equality.
 After the WWII a new, global student activism developed. SYL was
one of the founding members of the International Union of Students,
IUS.
6Cold War division in the global scene:• Two ideologies in the global student activism: Communist movement
and idea of a non-political international agency which would provide
concrete services to the students of various countries.
• SYL resigned the IUS after the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 (Sovietforces invaded Budapest) and joined the International Student
Conference (ISC), the opposing student organization.
• In 1967 it was found out that the CIA had indirectly funded the ISC
and recruited students from the United States National Student
Association (USNSA) to actively oppose Communism in the IUS.
• The dissolution of the ISC owing to lack of funds became a reality in1969. Once again, the IUS was the only world-wide studentorganization.
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Revolutionary tripartite system
 In the 1960’s students in Finland begin to demand a more significant
role in the decision-making of their universities.
 Representatives of professors, students and other staff at all decision
making bodies at all levels in Finnish Universities.
 Arrangement was enshrined in the University Act.
 All students automatically become members of their local student
union and the unions of institutions are the members of SYL. The
local student union is responsible for selecting student
representatives to participate in all official decision-making bodies ina university. The position of the student unions is defined in theUniversity Act.
 Student associations at the subject level.
 University is a scientific community: Students are seen more as
novice members in the academy than pupils taking classes.
8Europeandevelopment________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Beginnings• ESU was founded in 1982 by seven national unions ofstudents was called WESIB, the West European StudentInformation Bureau.
• The idea of a non-political international information sharing
agency which would provide concrete services to the studentsof various countries characterises the beginning of ESU.
• The political changes in Eastern Europe at the end of the1980s affected WESIB as well, as it opened up itself to national
unions of students from the former east.
• In February 1990, WESIB dropped the “W” to become theEuropean Student Information Bureau (ESIB).
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European Integration and Bologna process•ESIB to ESU changed from just an information sharing organisation into to apolitical organisation that represents the views and interests of students.

•Today the European Students’ Union (ESU) is the umbrella organisation of 47

national unions of students’ from 39 European countries.
•ESU promotes and represents the educational, social, economic and culturalinterests of 11 million students to all key European decision-making bodies: theEuropean Union, Council of Europe, UNESCO and the Bologna Follow UpGroup.

•ESU is a professional advocacy and capacity building organisation that isinfluential and recognised as an important stakeholder at the European andinternational level.
11ESU’s aims and activities• ESU aims to ensure and strengthen students’participation and to increase the student input into higher
education policy and decision making at the local,
national and European level.
• ESU promotes a higher education system based on thevalues of quality, equity and accessibility for all.
• ESU as a source of expertise on higher education policy
at all institutional levels and to build links and foster an
exchange of information, ideas and experiences among
students and student platforms at a regional and global
level.
12Strengths andChallenges of studentinvolvement________________________________________________________

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Strengths of student involvement•••

Expertise: Students represent the expertise of studies and student
matters which cannot be replaced with other expertise in the planningand implementation of the evaluations.
Credibility: The strong role of the students gives the evaluations
credibility, not only in the eyes of the staff, but also in the eyes ofstudents.
Impact: By participating in the evaluations, the students have an
opportunity to influence the development of education. When theevaluation has been completed, the students have a role in promoting
the results of the evaluations.

14More strengths:• Partnership in the academic community: Participation in
the evaluations strengthens the student role as an equal
member in the academic community.
• Learning process: Participation in the national evaluation
projects provides the students with a unique opportunity
to enhance their individual and collective competence.
Although the evaluations often demand hard work, thestudents and student unions participating in them havebeen very satisfied with the experience.

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Challenges of student involvement• Turnover and training: Most students spend only two to
three years working for student unions. Continuing needto train new students in the evaluation tasks.
• Motivation and reward: Sometimes students need to be
motivated to take part in the self-evaluation processes.
• Representativeness: Students are not a homogeneousgroup but have many views.
• Limited perspective: Students has less experience ineducation than education professionals and others
evaluation team members.
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Thank you for your attention!

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