ESU to elect a new Chairperson within three weeks

BUCHAREST – The European Students’ Union (ESU) will elect a new Chairperson during its 62nd Board Meeting in Bucharest, Romania, on 22 April. The fight for the helm of ESU will take place between Karina Ufert (Lithuania, currently ESU Vice-Chair) and Magnus Malnes (Norway, currently member of ESU’s Academic Affairs committee). Next to this, the Board of ESU will elect two new Vice-Chairs and 7 new Executive Committee (EC) members.

These elections will mark the beginning of the ESU structural changes that were adopted last year. The aim was to strengthen the presence in Brussels and make the organisation of work between elected representatives more flexible and responsive. This means doubling the Vice-Chairs and expanding the Executive Committee while removing permanent committees.

During the preceding seminar, taking place before the BM, delegates from 45 national unions of students will discuss the economic crisis and the impact it had on financing of higher education. The first panel will be focusing on the trends that ESU sees across Europe with regards to financing of Higher Education, especially the ones connected to students (cost-sharing, increasing tuition fees etc.).
The second panel focus on education mobility and how mobility is changing the landscape of higher education and the kind of challenges it brings to the institutions. During the workshops on the second and third day of the seminar, participants will debate the following topics in workshops: : the basics of higher education financing, research funding, future scenarios for higher education financing, budgeting of higher education and social support.

The elections debate will take place on the evening of 20 April and on the 21st of April. Lastly, there will be Board Meeting sessions on statements that will (or will not) be adopted by ESU’s Board on commodification, solving the economic crisis, ESC23 and on the ESU financial report.