What does it take for student participation in university governance to move beyond symbolic representation toward genuine co-decision-making?
What does it take for student participation in university governance to move beyond symbolic representation toward genuine co-decision-making?
This question brought Mateja Kovačić and Rea Andrić, WP3 team members from Zagreb School of Economics and Management, to HEAd'26 — one of Europe's leading conferences on higher education research and innovation, held this week at Universitat Politècnica de València.
At a workshop organized as part of the conference, they presented a paper titled "Models of Participatory Governance in Universities That Institutionalize Youth Co-Decision-Making: The Case of the EUonAIR Student Board," co-authored with Dubravka Kovačević, WP3 Lead and Associate Dean for Project Initiatives and Development at ZSEM.
Using institutional analysis, the paper examines how the EUonAIR Student Board operationalizes youth co-decision-making across three dimensions: the formal governance framework, student agency in practice, and informal governance practices. The findings suggest that effective co-decision-making depends on formal integration within governance structures, clearly defined rotation protocols, and a dual-track model combining formal decision-making with high-frequency informal coordination.
We are proud to see EUonAIR's approach to participatory governance contributing to the international academic conversation on meaningful student participation in higher education.
