Imagine Finland and its higher education institutions without an advocacy ecosystem and student actives at its core. Without student members on university boards and at different levels of decision-making, without students reporting grievances to decision-makers, without tutors, peer support and social events bringing students together, without a sense of community and, above all, without the multidisciplinary networks that are essential for working life and society. An environment in which equality is neither implemented nor addressed.

Not that nice of a thought.

We can see that the importance of the student movement for individual students and the society is undeniable. Student unions, student associations and clubs look after the interests of students, create a sense of community and teach their members the skills of active citizenship, as is defined in the law on the duties of student unions. Through their actives, students build multidisciplinary networks that are essential for the society and take care of future generations – yes, students – advocacy, all over Finland. What would happen if students stopped doing this long-term influencing work?

The student movement is mainly made up of voluntary student actives who, in addition to their positions of trust, also contribute to their studies, pay for the time spent usually by drawing on student grants, housing allowances and student loans. In other words, the student movement does not live a life of glamour, even if students had the opportunity and resources to work for their living.

Being a student active typically takes up a large slice of your extracurricular life, often hundreds of hours. It is often not possible to work alongside organizational activities and studies, and organizational activities are often even carried out at the expense of the welfare and student loan subsidies. Despite this, students want to continue to be active because it enables them to organize events that bring students together, to lobby for social and educational policy in the school and to make their voice heard in national decision-making.

At the same time, society also wants students to graduate on time, doing 27 hours of study per credit, completing around 60 credits per year. This amounts to 1620 hours of work per year, equivalent to nine months of full-time work. The celebratory speeches also don’t forget to remind students of the importance of rest and holidays, prioritizing their own well-being, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, the importance of physical activity and the uniqueness and enjoyment of studying time. However, working should not be forgotten either, since why would someone only have one day job nowadays. Sounds pretty impossible, doesn’t it?

So, what happens in a situation where students income is cut in unprecedented ways, for example through cuts in housing support and index freezes on student loans, not to mention VAT increases that affect the whole nation? Advocacy is needed now more than ever, but at the same time the ability tocarry out such work is being hindered for those who do it – the students. It is therefore reasonable to ask whether, in future, the state, municipalities or universities will themselves organize the same amount of studt lobbying and welfare activities, when students who are active on a voluntary basis no longer have the financial means to devote hundreds of hours of their own resources to this? Do they pay for a significant amount of support services, event organizers and peer-to-peer activities? And, most importantly, what happens if no one does?

There are many question marks going around, and the only thing that is certain is that decisions about students will be made, whether students themselves are present or not. What the consequences of such decisions will be for students, universities and the future of the working world can only be guessed about. Will the hard built and maintained higher education advocacy ecosystem wither away in the face of ever-increasing student distress?

Author: Julia Väänänen, candidate for SAMOK President for 2025

During the autumn, SAMOK will present candidates for the SAMOK board for 2025 on its blog and on social media. For more information about the Federal Assembly, click here.