“Students aren’t represented enough in decision-making bodies”

14/11/2018

What are your proposals as candidates?
 
We have several proposals in our candidacy. Most of them are classroom-focused because our candidacy is mainly formed by Student Representatives and students from first to fifth year. Our proposals are related to academic assessment: we want to study whether Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation is feasible and try to encourage having an alternative kind of evaluation for other students. We also aim to avoid having excessively long lectures. I just had a Private International Law lecture that lasted four hours in a row. This discourages anyone from going to class – whenever there is a break, people leave. We want to change this, even if it is only by putting a seminar in between.
 
Another proposal is to create a budget from the Senate (Claustre) to encourage the students’ participation. A budget intended solely for contests and student projects. We also have several proposals focused on all faculties, such as the Faculty of Economics at the Sabadell Campus. This campus has two minuscule parking areas, one for professors and one for students. The professors’ parking is never full, but the students’ one is always packed and people have to look for spots. We want the spots that professors don’t use to be used by students.
 
What model of university do you suggest?
 
We suggest a model of university more participative, in which students’ opinions are taken into account at the time of decision-making. I was at a meeting of the UAB’s Governing Council not long ago and there were only three student representatives, and two of those three weren’t present. The meeting went smoothly because the student’s voice was not present. We aren’t represented enough in decision-making bodies, and we should encourage so. We also aim for a feminist university, for which a protocol was approved and in which our candidacy participated. We are rooting for a more ecologist university.