Wednesday 20-10-2021 - 12:08

 

There are lots of reasons to #LoveSUs - from their work on equality, diversity, and inclusion to providing the opportunity for students from all backgrounds to participate in group activities. One of the biggest reasons why we #LoveSUs is the long-term impact they can have on the students that interact with them and how many leave their institution feeling empowered and able to take ownership of things that matter to them.

 

Every year, SUs run and support multiple democratic processes and activities, including elections, referenda, council meetings, demonstrations, and campaigns. This raises the question - how does this exposure to democracy with SUs affect students’ participation in democratic processes and political trust in the future?

 

The recent academic article ‘Learning by doing: The impact of experiencing democracy in education on political trust and participation.’ by Johannes Kiess contained the following findings:

 

 

- Respondents who experienced democracy in school or university tend to vote and engage, even in contentious forms of political participation, more often.

 

- The experience of democratic practices within an educational institution, regardless of whether that be in school, college or university, increases trust in political institutions.

 

- Trust in political institutions, in turn, increases the likelihood of voting, but not of engaging in other forms of participation

 

- Early democratic experiences seem to foster vivid and participatory democracy, without streamlining people into passive participation i.e. not being actively involved in change and engaging with decision-making mechanisms.

 

- National context matters and varies between nations. In the United Kingdom, the coefficients for trust are highest, meaning the impact of participation on trust is highest in the UK.

 

- Through experiencing democratic engagement in school/university citizens are “not indoctrinated to support the political institutions” and are enabled to “develop critical democratic self-esteem” – i.e. developing the skills to critically analyse positions.  

 

 

This highlights the key role of SUs in the UK, and abroad, establishing opportunities for learning democracy by doing.

 

It also highlights the importance of supporting college and university students’ unions to provide this civic education to support a fully democratic society.  So, keep in mind the impact of SUs – not just on the students who put themselves forward for a leadership role but for the thousands of students who vote, campaign, and protest across the country.

 

You can read the whole article here. This includes a breakdown of variation by country, definitions of democratic engagement, and the limitations of the study.

 

You can also access resources and the Elections Support Service provided by NUS Charity here. Through this service, NUS Charity helps hundreds of SUs deliver their elections, collect data on delivery modes and candidate characteristics as well as curate case studies to highlight good practice. You can read more on the Elections Service report here.