Student representation
Under student council or student government are interest groups of students in relation to the universities and colleges , government agencies and the public understood. Historically, there are both private and public organizational forms of student representation in German-speaking countries .
Germany
Due to the limited competencies of the federal legislature in higher education law ( cultural sovereignty of the federal states ) and the earlier division of Germany, different forms of student representation have historically developed in Germany :
- In most federal states, the students at a university form a student body (also referred to as the constituted student body), which is usually represented by the General Student Committee (AStA). Other organs are often the student parliament and the student councils in the individual subjects or courses.
- In many places in East Germany there is a student council instead of the AStA and student parliament .
- In Bavaria there have been no more written student bodies since 1973; instead, the student representatives in the university committees form their own legally prescribed bodies ( student convention ). However, since their area of responsibility is strictly limited in relation to the university, so-called independent student bodies exist in parallel to these official representations at many universities .
There is a nationwide representation in the form of the association for the free association of student bodies (fzs), to which both independent and independent student bodies belong. However, the fzs currently only represents around a third of all universities.
Austria
In Austria , student representation at public universities, colleges of teacher education and universities of applied sciences is organized uniformly across the country under public law. In addition to the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH), which is responsible for representation throughout Austria, each university has its own body, the student body at the respective university . The educational university representatives and the university of applied sciences student representatives have been separate bodies since 2015, insofar as the average number of students exceeds 1000 students. Pedagogical university representations and technical college study representations with an average of fewer than 1000 students at the relevant educational institution are still without corporate law and are administered by the ÖH federal representation.
From 1999 to 2004 the students at private universities were ÖH members, but since then their representation has again been inconsistent and organized on a private law basis.
Switzerland
As in Germany, higher education law in Switzerland is largely a matter for the cantons . Accordingly, the student representatives at universities and colleges are organized very differently:
- At most universities ( Basel , Bern , Freiburg , Lucerne , Neuchâtel , St. Gallen and ETH Lausanne ), the student bodies are organized as public corporations by the respective university laws. Unlike in Germany, however, students mostly have an individual right to leave.
- At the universities of Geneva and Lausanne , on the other hand, the local student councils are organized on the French model as an umbrella organization for several associations and initiatives.
- At ETH Zurich , an association under private law ( VSETH , since 1862) traditionally looks after the interests of the students.
At the national level there is the Association of Swiss Student Unions (VSS), founded in 1920 , which represents the vast majority of Swiss universities.
Italy
South-Tirol
The South Tyrolean Student Union is the most important South Tyrolean student body (sh.asus). It was founded in 1955 as a non-profit organization.