University of Helsinki
When I received my acceptance letter for the Master’s Degree Programme in European Studies last April, all I knew was that I’m going to study political history in an international and multidisciplinary programme in Helsinki. Now, a year later, I am one of the student representatives in our programme’s steering group. How did this happen and what does it actually mean?
The Master’s Degree Program for European Studies (MES), coordinated by the Network of European Studies (NES), is a quite new programme, only the second generation of MES students will be graduating this year. Therefore, it is constantly developing and changing and needs a little more attention than programmes with a longer history. For overseeing its development, MES has a steering group, including representatives from the network, from all study fields combined in the programme, and also two MES students. A combination of a lucky chance and the fact that I have always been an active student made me end up as one of the latter.
The role of the student representatives is to be the connecting link between the programme and our fellow students. Apart from participating the steering group meetings, our main actual responsibility is to collect student feedback twice a year. I believe that when the feedback is collected by students, it is a lot more advantageous, because while conducting the questionnaires, we can take into account the issues that the steering group needs answers and opinions about, but also the matters we as students believe need to be discussed. Therefore, the steering group will get a more clear picture what the students think. Also, this way even the minor worries come out, because it is always easier to complain to the fellow students than to the teachers 🙂
In addition, we are responsible for finding tutors for the next year students amongst our cohort. I believe it is a nice way of doing it – for the students, by the students. It is also great to know that the steering group trusts our opinion to select the best people.
This kind of flexibility and student involvement is one of the great advantages of the MES programme – things that are not functioning can be changed more easily and student’s opinions are taken into account. Including students to the work of the steering group gives us a feeling that it really matters what we have to say.
For me, being a student representative is exciting on the one hand because I can actually do something to make the programme better for future generations, on the other hand, it is interesting to see this side of the university and how a study programme is actually made. Especially when coming from a foreign country, this kind of experience can make the connection between the student and the university much stronger.
Pilleriin Lillemets
Student in the Master’s Degree Program for European Studies (MES)