Global Student Forum
The Global Student Forum (GSF) is the main umbrella of school and university student unions in the world. It's an independent and democratic structure composed by the five main continental student platforms of the world and by some independent national and student unions, representing in total 197 student organisations from schools and universities of 118 countries.[1]
The organisation focuses on the defense of learners' rights at the global level. It promotes advocacy towards international institutions,supports activism at all levels and provides training through events of political debate and global campaigns. The organisation is independent and is based on democratic student-led decision making, and it stands in favour of public education, no discrimination and inclusive and democratic societies, with a human right based approach.
History[edit]
The Global Student Forum was founded in 2020 after years of informal cooperation among AASU (Africa), CSA (Commonwealth), ESU (Europe), OBESSU (Europe), OCLAE (Latin America) and other structures at the national level, Student Voice (United States), CFS-FCÉÉ (Canada), Equal Education (South Africa) and RED (Chile). All of these structures advocated for learners' rights in different parts of the planet and agreed on the need of an independent global structure to coordinate their cooperation and to serve as a tool of the student movement as a whole, also open to other organisations already existing and under formation. The first common event was organised in Geneva in December 2019, and a first common political statement was produced on refugee and migrant students' rights. The organisation was created six months later, in Summer 2020 through the selection of a Steering Committee of seven members, five from the continental platforms and two elected by the other member organisations of the Global Student Forum. In the first year of action the organisation based all of its activities online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Main events included a Youth Caucus on the G20 and the global policies for recovery from the pandemic, a celebration of International Students' Day, and initiatives in cooperation with UNESCO.[2][3]
Objectives[edit]
The Global Student Forum stands for a full inclusion of school and university students in decision making relative to both education and public policy as a whole. Its main values are the defense of human rights, the creation of inclusive and democratic societies, the defense of the environment, and the defense for a quality public education available for all without any sort of barriers or discriminations.[4]
The cooperation with teacher unions and academic faculty is seen as vital to achieve those goals, and the Global Student Forum has already organised events with networks of scholars, supports the research activities on the student movement and it has a partnership with Education International, the global platform of teacher unions.[5][6][7][8]
The Global Student Forum cooperates with other groups and organisations of civil society with similar goals, in particular joint statements were issued with the EUJS and WUJS against antisemitism and for the remembrance of the Holocaust, and supported the campaigns for the liberation of Patrick Zaki and Ahmed Samir.[9][10]
Structure[edit]
The Global Student Forum is based in Brussels, and the Secretariat (Staff) is hosted by Education International, the global platform of teachers' unions. The current head of the staff (Executive Director) is Sebastian Berger, from Austria.[11]
The Steering Committee is the political body leading the organisation, with a two-year mandate. The Committee is selected by the membership with 5 members directly appointed by the regional platforms and 2 elected by other member organisations of the Global Student Forum.
Membership[edit]
The Global Student Forum has four categories of membership.
- Full members are international regional platforms of student unions and organisations at the continental level.
- Consociate members are national structures representing and organising students without a continental umbrella.
- Associate members are topic-based groups and organisations from different levels, which are part of the student movement despite not being primarily focusing on learners' rights.
- Candidate members are organisations that started the membership process but that still miss a definitive membership status.
The status of some members that joined the Global Student Forum when it was created still need to be classified as Associate or Consociate, because there was no distinction among the two categories in the first months of activity of the organisation.[1]
| Country / Region | Name of the Organisation | Acronym | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | All-Africa Student Union | AASU | Full Member |
| Commonwealth | Commonwealth Students Association | CSA | Full Member |
| Europe | European Students' Union | ESU | Full Member |
| Europe | Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions | OBESSU | Full Member |
| Latin America | Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes | OCLAE | Full Member |
| Australia | National Union of Students - Australia | NUS-A | Consociate |
| Canada | Canadian Federation of Students | CFS-FCÉÉ | Consociate |
| Chile | Red de Estudios para la Profundización Democrática | RED | Associate |
| South Africa | Equal Education | EE | To be determined |
| United States | Student Voice | SV | To be determined |
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Membership Directory of the Global Student Forum" (PDF). Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Report, G. E. M. (2021-03-02). "#AllmeansALL a call to action from 40 million European youth to mark Zero Discrimination Day". World Education Blog. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "Co-hosted dialogue on 2021 regional report with the Global Student Forum, European Students Union and Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions | Global Education Monitoring Report". en.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "About". GSF. 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "Universities: Past, Present, and Future". wcfia.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "Student impact on higher education globally - perspectives from leaders of regional student union federations and the Global Student Forum". universities-pastpresentfuture.mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "MCO – Global Student Forum webinar on student involvement in universities, 19 April". eua.eu. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "Partners". GSF. 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "EUJS". EUJS Welcomes the Adoption of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism by the Global Student Forum (GSF).
- ↑ Myr, Ilaria (2021-03-11). "Il Global Student Forum adotta la definizione di antisemitismo dell'IHRA". Mosaico (in italiano). Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ↑ "Team". GSF. 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
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