Happy 2024 everyone!
A LOT has gone on in the short two weeks I’ve been back, but I would be lying if I said anything else was as exciting as my trip to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland just last week.
So why was I there and why should you care?
Good question... let’s see how well I can summarise it. Wonkhe is an organisation based in the UK that deals with Higher education policy and likes to drive debate around it. They have a university side and an SU side. A few times a year, they organise trips for SUs to go to different countries in Europe to learn about their Higher Education institutions, primarily visiting SUs and these countries’ equivalent to the National Union of Students (NUS). This was the first trip of 2024, and for a week I got to tour the Baltics and Finland visiting SUs, NUS, universities, and even local NGOs that work around housing (which, by now, you’ll know it’s one of my favourite topics) and fraternities and sororities (unlike the American Hollywood version of them, there are about patriotism and national pride).
The trip started in Riga, Latvia's capital, where we visited two SUs, an NUS, and a sorority. The biggest lesson from Riga: promoting continuity and participation from the beginning in SUs makes for a more engaged student body, and always wear enough layers (it was –22 degrees!).
Next stop was Tartu, in Estonia, where we visited an SU, a fraternity, and a city development organisation. Biggest lessons from that city: it is a very positive thing that as an SU we run clubs and sports rather than it being the university, and never ever go into a fraternity basement after they tell you only men are allowed in that room (we saw some things...). Here's a picture of the first bit of the tour:
After a brief stop in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, we took a ferry to Helsinki, in Finland, and immediately got on a coach which took us to Turku, a student city in west Finland. At this stop we visited two SUs. Biggest lesson from Turku: we are falling behind on our approach to housing – as an SU we should be trying to offer our own accommodation or our own staff support around this issue, at the very least. Second lesson, Ikea meatballs have NOTHING on true Nordic meals – it was lifechanging.
The next day we boarded the coach again and made it to Tampere, where we visited two SUs, one of which wrote an agreement with the city to make Tampere the best student city in Finland. We learned about the power of an SU fully ran by students, and that cultural and legal implications mean that the student experience is more protected in Finland. These same people then took us swimming in an ice-lake (quite literally, here’s the picture as proof) and then to a sauna. The second lesson is that there is no better bonding with your senior staff than being in a sauna together – perhaps too much bonding, some would say.
The next – albeit brief- stop was Hamellina, where we visited a uni and an SU. There we learned the magnificent idea of the overalls (pictures also attached) where students represent their department and then fill these pieces of clothing with badges that claim to their successes. I really want to bring this back to Bath, but more on this later. At this point, I already felt immune to the cold Nordic weather (getting in a frozen lake will do that for you).
We rode back to Helsinki to visit national organisations and nations. One of the nations gifted me the pair of overalls that you just saw. Ideal, because they have our SU colours! We learned that no matter how young a country is, the students have an amazing chance of community building which
leads to a sense of national identity. I am still toying with the idea of how to use that in our favour back in Bath.
The final stop (I bet you’re tired from just reading this) was Espoo, where at the university of Altoo their SU claims to have the best student experience in the world. I’ll be completely honest with you, they do nothing differently to what we do back here, except perhaps having an SU more predominantly run by students and not staff. This left me thinking, and hopefully I’ll be able to expand some more on my reflections later on.
I will leave you with this for now, but as usual, feel free to ask any questions or just pop by my office for a chat. Good luck to all of you doing exams. Remember to stay warm and be kind to one another!
Much love,
Jiji x
Some photos:
Me with Alex (VP for Education at Exeter Guild) and Jas (SU President for Bath Spa) at -22 degrees in Riga:
A picture of the whole UK gang, as well as Tampere's SU:
