SIHEG - Student Impact on Higher Education Globally research project is conducted by Manja Klemenčič in partnership with researchers from the Global Student Forum. The project commenced in May 2021 and is expected to conclude data collection and draft publications by February 2022.
This research project examines student agency in higher education, maps existing opportunities for students to influence higher education and investigates student perceptions of their impact on higher education. Student agency is defined as students’ capabilities to influence their own education pathways, and higher education institutions and systems. The project will also look at contemporary student involvement in broader societal issues and social changes. Student impact on higher education is conceptualized as students affecting changes in higher education policies and practices. The guiding research questions for this research project are twofold: (1) How students enact agency in higher education (and society at large)? (2) How student impact on higher education compares across institutions and countries worldwide?
The project is implemented through international collaborative research by Dr. Manja Klemenčič as principal investigator in partnership with researchers from the Global Student Forum (GSF) which includes members from all global regions jointly representing 119 countries.
The objective of the research project is to advance the understanding of student agency in higher education and the impact students have on higher education. The research project is the first large-scale international collaborative research on student impact on higher education globally. It aims to collect data from elected student representatives across the world who are in their representative roles the foremost agents in institutional, national, and supranational higher education politics. They represent student interests, engae in higher education reforms and social change more broadly. Elected student representatives bridge the experiences of being students with political engagement as student leaders and professional engagement as student experts. The population of elected student representatives can offer first-hand data on student agency, student impact and mapping of higher education policies, practices and developments in their respective institutions, countries, and world regions.
The researchers are working on a volume (co-edited by members of the core research group) with regional sections on Africa, Asia and Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America. In addition to chapters on regional studnet federations and the Global Student Forum, the volume will include chapters with national case studies on student organizing, student representation and student politics in selection of countries. All researchers involved in this project will participate in a worshop on research methods to investigate this topic and a international collaborative writing retreat.
Members of the core research group include (in alphabetical order):
Sebastian Berger, Executive Director of Global Student Forum (GSF) (Support Lead overall volume)
Bianca Borges dos Santos, Member of the Executive Secretariat of the Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes (OCLAE) and Member of the GSF Steering Group (Co-Lead Latin America section)
Martina Darmanian, President of the European Students' Union (ESU) (Co-Lead Europe section)
Jakub Grodecki, Vice-President of the European Students' Union (Co-Lead Europe Section)
Martin Hammerbauer, Executive Committee Member, ESU (Co-Lead Europe Section)
Dr. Manja Klemenčič, Harvard University (Support Lead overall volume)
Peter Kwasi Kodjie, Secretary General of the All-Africa Students Union (AASU) (Co-lead Africa section)
Giuseppe Lipari, Member of the GSF Steering Group (Support Lead Europe section)
Folabit Lena Novel, Member of the GSF Steering Group (Support Lead Africa section)
Everton Rattray (Co-Lead Caribbean section)
Dr. Musarrat Maisha Reza, University of Exeter, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Students’ Association (CSA) (Lead Asia section; Support Lead Caribbean section)
Carmen Romero, Member of the GSF Steering Group (Support Lead Latin America section)
Amilcar Sanatan, Member of the GSF Steering Group (Support Lead overall volume)
Ankit Tripathi, Member of the GSF Steering Group (Lead Canada section)
Matteo Vespa, Executive Committee Member, ESU (Co-Lead Europe Section)
Christina Williams (Co-Lead Caribbean section)
tbd
Contributing researchers (in alphabetical order) (tbd):
Sebastian Berger, Bianca Borges dos Santos, Giuseppe Lipari, Folabit Lena Novel, Carmen Romero, Amilcar Sanatan, Ankit Tripathi (Global Student Forum)
Bianca Borges dos Santos (Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes)
Martina Darmanian, Jakub Grodecki, Martin Hammerbauer, Mateo Vespa (European Students' Union)
Peter Kwasi Kodjie (All-Africa Students' Union)
Dr. Musarrat Maisha Reza (Commonwealth Students’ Association)
Everton Rattray and Christina Williams (Caribbean Students' Union)
Folabit Lena Novel (Cameroon)
Ankit Tripathi (Canada)
tbd
