STUPS Student Participation without Borders

At the early stages of the Bologna Process, European leaders made an unprecedented political affirmation of the importance of student participation in the governance of higher education systems and institutions. The enhanced engagement of students became one of the principles of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and has been perceived as a political objective, substantial value and procedural principle at the same time. Even so, student participation is currently far from the desired standards both in terms of quantity and quality, and the engagement of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups of students is almost non-existent.

Thus, the general objective of the project Student Participation Without Borders (STUPS) is to lay the foundations of a European network focusing on the development of new practices to promote student participation, with the aim of finding genuine solutions to one of the most pressing challenges of higher education. Hence, the following outputs will be developed:

  • A pilot test of student participation indexes
  • Two MOOCs dealing with student participation and soft skills
  • A workshop to stimulate participatory processes

The target groups of STUPS are students and student leaders preferably from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds. 

The various project activities seek to promote a high level of participation. To achieve this aim, training activities will be organized in Huelva and Brussels.

The STUPS consortium consists of five members and is led by the University of Huelva (Spain). The other partners are the University of Évora (Portugal), the University of Applied Sciences of Upper Austria (Austria), the European Students’ Union (Belgium) and the Directorate of Evaluation and Accreditation of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain).

More information will be available on the project website: www.stupsproject.eu