Adam Gajek from Poland elected as President of the European Students’ Union
BLED, SLOVENIA – Adam Gajek from Poland has been elected as President of the European Students’ Union (ESU). Along with Adam, two Vice Presidents, Katrina Koppel (Estonia) and Robert Napier (Malta) as well as seven Executive Committee members were also elected at the 74th Board Meeting of ESU taking place in Bled, Slovenia from 22 to 28 April 2018.
For the positions of the seven Executive Committee members, the following student representatives were elected: Gohar Hovhannisyan (Armenia), Monika Skadborg (Denmark), Sebastian Berger (Austria), Daniel Altman (Israel), Urša Leban (Slovenia), Yulia Dobyshuk (Belarus), João Pedro Estêvão Martins (Portugal).
Over 100 delegates from 46 national unions of students from 39 countries participated in the meeting. The newly elected leadership will represent more than 15 million students in Europe. Their one year mandate will start on 1 July 2018.
Adam Gajek was a member of the European Students’ Union Executive Committee 2016/2017. His main focus lies in the area of quality of higher education, with an emphasis given to quality assurance and prior learning recognition. He is a member of the ESU Quality Assurance Student Experts’ Pool and a student expert of the Polish Accreditation Committee. He has been engaged in the student movement for many years, formerly served as an International Officer of the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland (PSRP), and ahead of the Audit Committee of the Students’ Union of the University of Warsaw.
“I want ESU to encourage and empower our unions, to create thematic networks where people can discuss issues and where we can feed them with content and information.I wish to unite our strengths for common goals, use our motivation to make a real change and be constantly inspired by student activists who often risk their future to fight for their values. This is ESU I want to see – strong through its members, protecting the students’ needs in whole Europe and being inspired by values which matter for all of us.” says Adam Gajek.
Background on ESU´s new Vice-Chairs
Katrina is a student and civil society activist from Estonia, as well as an “education quality assurance nerd”. She has been in the student movement for over 6 years. When not fighting for students’ rights, she can be found writing about populism, playing designer for various causes or listening to podcasts.
Robert Napier holds a Bachelor of Law and a Masters of Advocacy from the University of Malta. He served as President (2017-2018), Secretary (2016-2017) and Social Policy Commissioner (2015-2016) of the University Students’ Council in Malta.