Meet Damir Solak, a dedicated advocate for student involvement and representation in higher education. As an early member of the EDUC Student Board and an active participant in the Czech National Student Union (SK RVŠ), Damir has been instrumental in advancing the recognition and integration of the EDUC alliance as a European university network. His commitment to enhancing student participation and improving educational opportunities focuses on fostering collaboration, communication, and engagement among students across Europe. Through his vision and leadership, the Student Board continues to drive initiatives toward a more inclusive and dynamic educational environment.
Shaping the Future of Student Representation
Damir joined EDUC at the very beginning. As a member of the Czech National Student Union (SK RVŠ), he helped to get the support of SK RVŠ for the application of EDUC to become recognized as a European University alliance. Reflecting on his efforts, Damir says, "After several attempts, I am happy that in EDUC II we take student participation more seriously. For this first year of our mandate our goal was to create a fully functional Student Board that is also participating in Task Groups, so we can also co-create the Work Packages of EDUC. We, for example, also presented some ideas for improvement of PR or courses catalogue."
"In summer, we will celebrate one year since we got established and time flies so quickly," Damir notes. Evaluating the first year, he would like to see all partner universities having active student representatives in the Student Board, selected directly by the students. Unfortunately, there have been struggles with frequent changes of student representatives or absences. Looking forward, Damir envisions the "Student Board as a partner that is able to provide the opinion of students for all important decisions that are made in EDUC – from the offer of courses to involvement of Ph.D. students in research activities."
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Enhancing Communication and Collaboration
Damir emphasizes the importance of communication between all members. "I am very happy that we can be part of the Steering Committee, where we can not only present our ideas but also react and comment on the strategic steps of the alliance and shape its future." He is also pleased that they joined the Conference of the Alliances of the European Students' Union (ESU), discussing significant issues that might influence alliances on the European level. "ESU is an umbrella organisation of dozens of student unions from the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This organisation has a strong voice, when it comes to fighting for student affairs especially on the EU or EHEA level."
Spreading information about EDUC remains a challenge. Damir observes, "I think that it is hard for ordinary students to imagine what opportunities are offered by the EDUC alliance. We should try to integrate information about EDUC in information leaflets or presentations at the beginning of the academic year." He regularly communicates with student chambers of the faculty and university academic senates, informing them about news in the alliance and listening to their comments. Damir mentions, "We also meet EDUC staff at Masaryk University in informal meetings several times per year and share EDUC content on our student chamber's social networks."
"I am happy that we are encouraging students to participate in summer schools. At my faculty, Faculty of Law, we have also created courses that are taught jointly with one of partner universities and students can get to know each other. However, I believe we all can do more, especially in promoting the offer of courses, their amount and the number of ECTS for them."
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Empowering Voices
Reflecting on the 2024 EU elections, Damir underscores the importance of student engagement in the democratic process. "I believe that participation in every election is important because we are electing our representatives, who then take decisions that are impacting our lives. From the HEIs point of view the EU elections will be important in terms of funding – the new European Parliament will have a voice on EU budget, including the allocation of money that will be used for Erasmus+, research projects and funding of the alliances, of course."
Damir believes that the ability to speak several foreign languages is key, with a high level of English already being a standard. "I would like to see EDUC offering more courses of foreign languages (especially French, German or Spanish), this could be an added value that can graduates benefit afterwards on the labour market."
Reflecting on his time with the Student Board, Damir is proud of their formal establishment. "We have our Charter, our Governing Board, representatives in the Steering Committee, we also joined the Conference of the Alliance. On the other hand there are other things to be done. The participation of student representatives in the task groups is still not working well."
Join the Movement
Damir encourages students to become part of the EDUC Alliance. "All partner universities should be sending active students to our Student Board. It is better if the students are in the earlier stages of their studies since it takes some time to learn about all our structures, so they can stay in the Student Board longer."