First Working Group meeting on Student Welfare
From the 1st to the 3rd of May, the Working Group on Student Welfare had its first meeting in Madrid, Spain. The Working Group consists of representatives of OBESSU Member Organisations ASuBiH, SLL, SIF, DOS and CANAE, OBESSU Board Member Oona Heiska, with the support of the OBESSU Project Officer.
The Working Group goals are to define Student Welfare, discover what Student Welfare means in different countries in Europe, what should be the ultimate minimum welfare support that students receive and find a way to acknowledge the differences between contexts, but still working together to achieve the goals. Over the next few months the Working Group members from Iceland, Slovenia and Spain will research and explore how students perceive student welfare in these countries and if they feel the need for improvement. The Working Group will last until the end of 2015 but the project itself will continue till 2017.
The Working Group on Student Welfare runs in the framework of the annual Work Plan 2015 called “Welfare, Wellbeing and Social Autonomy of School Students” funded by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. The Work Plan aims at providing the space to analyse, discuss and compare similarities and differences among European countries when ensuring the wellbeing and welfare of school students and to produce recommendations from the school student perspective on how to ensure welfare, wellbeing and social autonomy of school students that can be used at national and European level.
The Work Plan activities include the work of the Working Group, the case studies run in Iceland, Slovenia and Spain, and the Convention on Student Welfare that will take place at the end of the year in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
The first meeting of the Working Group was held at the headquarters of the Spanish National Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud de España) in Madrid and lasted 3 days.
The first day of the meeting the Working Group started by roughly defining what Student Welfare is and what we could possibly do to achieve it the best way possible. After defining the term the group started exploring what different aspects affect student welfare and what is needed to have in mind when addressing the topic.
The second day was dedicated to further explore the concepts and to start planning the case studies that will take place in Spain, Iceland and Slovenia. Three members of the Working Group will carry out these case studies and present them at the Convention on Student Welfare that will take place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. By the end of the day, all the Working Group members were able to have a clear picture of the steps that are needed to be taken, the gaols to aim at, the timelines and the resources that were available for them.
The last day of the Working Group was dedicated to explore the situation of Student Welfare in the different countries represented in the meeting. Participants explored their welfare systems and, according to the newly agreed definition, they explored the situation in their countries and presented to the rest of participants to the meeting. After these presentations, communication within the Working Group was discussed. It was decided that frequent online group meetings along with social media and emails were the way to go.
By the end of the year, when the Working Group has finished with their work, we should have a good idea of what Student Welfare really means and what is needed for improvement. The plan is to develop final recommendations that OBESSU Member and Candidate Organisations can use at local and national level for their advocacy work.
Keep an eye on the future Working Group activities, check out the WG webpage and follow further developments at #WGWelfare.
For further information please contact OBESSU Board Member Oona Heiska at oona@obessu.org.
Written by Laufey Maria Jonsdottir, Working Group member.
