LiU student elected vice-president of ECIU Student Council
19 January 2025
Elin Norberg
Ellen Ivarius Andersson took a break from her studies after three years in the teacher programme to become the student union president of StuFF. She has now also become vice-president of the ECIU Student Council.
The ECIU Student Council meets four times a year to decide, for example, which programs ECIU University should focus on and what the education policy should look like. They also appoint student representatives to ECIU's central board and other working groups within ECIU University. As vice-president, Ellen, together with the rest of the presidium, is responsible for planning meetings and projects and representing the student perspective in various contexts.
– Right now, I am part of the working group for the ECIU University Forum 2025, she says. The ECIU University Forum invites students, administrative staff and teachers from all ECIU universities to a conference on education and innovation.
International commitment to student influence
Ellen thinks the context that the ECIU Student Council creates is cool. The students are new to each other, and they have all embarked on a project where they don't really know what awaits them.
– It's cool to be part of an international environment and meet students from other countries who also work with student influence, she says.
She goes on to talk about how the innovative thinking, optimism and will of all those involved make nothing impossible.
– All the commitment you make is appreciated and then it is extra fun to contribute, she continues.
She hopes that the creation of the group will contribute to a strong student influence that is well-founded among the students they represent. The goal is to ensure that ECIU University creates education and activities that students want.
Next steps for ECIU Student Council
Ellen is most looking forward to writing an opinion program for the students.
– There will be many discussions to agree on what students from the 12 different European universities think about education, she says.
In connection with the creation of the opinion program, they also hope to strengthen the connection to the ECIU University board. At the ECIU board meeting to be held in Brussels in early 2025, Ellen and the others in the presidium of the ECIU Student Council will participate to discuss student influence.
– It is the students who know best what it is like to be a student, she concludes.