Student parliament
The student parliament or student parliament , abbreviated to StuPa or SP , is usually the highest decision-making electoral body ( organ ) of an established student body in Germany, primarily in the north and west of Germany. It elects and instructs the General Student Committee (AStA) and decides on the statutes and budget of the student body.
Electoral periods and electoral systems
The members of the student parliament are generally elected by all enrolled students at the respective university . The parliamentary term of office usually lasts one year. It is very rare to find shorter electoral periods of one semester (half-year); At the Fernuniversität Hagen, however, a term of office even lasts two years.
Today the student parliaments are often elected according to the principle of list or proportional representation, in which various associations ("lists") woo the favor of the students and the parliamentary seats are distributed in proportion to the votes cast on the respective lists. Usually there are some lists that belong to the university associations of the political parties , such as the RCDS , the Juso-Hochschulgruppen or the Linke.SDS . Other lists are non-party. In isolated cases, the principle of person or majority voting is also used , in which individual candidates can be chosen instead of lists.
Voter turnout has steadily declined since the 1960s. In 2001, 14.1% was achieved in Bonn. In the past, voter turnout at the University of Bremen was sometimes well below 10%. In 1966 the Cologne student parliament achieved a phenomenal turnout of 62% when, on the initiative of the AStA, a Cologne car dealership donated a ruby-red VW Beetle 1300, which was raffled off among all voters.
history
Student parliaments in the sense described have only existed at most German universities since the 1960s. Previously there was often only the AStA as the sole representative body, which thus combined the functions of legislative and executive branches . Only at a few larger universities have separate legislative bodies been elected since the late 1940s, which initially bore different names, e.g. B. Convention ( FU Berlin , University of Munich ), "Student Assembly" ( University of Hamburg ) or "Student Council" ( University of Göttingen ). However, at that time all of these bodies were still elected according to majority voting, while the current list voting system was only used more widely in the 1960s.
size
The size of the representation is regulated in the statutes or in the university laws. In some cases, the statutes prescribe an odd number of seats, for example 51 members in Cologne, 41 in Aachen and 33 in Gießen. Smaller universities, such as the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences , are satisfied with 15 members, the Art Academy for Media in Cologne with 10.
Different designations
Regionally, different designations are possible for the highest student electoral body. This is what the Bremen Higher Education Act officially calls the Student Council to this day . In German-speaking Switzerland , the term student council is also widespread; There is only a student parliament there at the University of St. Gallen .
In some federal states in Germany, the tasks of the student parliament and AStA are combined in a student council .
In the independent student bodies , a voluntary form of organization for students without a legal mandate in Bavaria (and until 2012 in Baden-Württemberg ), there are also numerous other names due to the sometimes different electoral and representative structures. Student parliaments do not exist there at all universities.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brigitte Linden: Bonn Student Parliament: voter turnout lower than ever , Generalanzeiger from January 29, 2001 (accessed April 2012)
- ↑ Headlights brochure SOURCE DEFECTIVE ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Olaf Bartz: VW Käfer from "Miss Sommersemester", article on the 50th SP election in Cologne 2004 (accessed April 2012)
- ↑ Berlin University Act §19 (3) ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Bremen Higher Education Act (§ 45 Paragraphs 4 and 5) ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
