Universities and similar centers of
higher education are useful for encouraging deeper participation. Elections at
these institutions for student structures are a very important learning ground
for politics. In addition, they are important as centers for registration and
civic education. Also, many universities and other institutes for higher
learning offer politics and elections subjects in their undergraduate and
graduate programs.
Student government and specifically
student unions at university level can be a medium for channeling the needs and
demands of young people to an executive (school or university administration).
The idea is that mimicking positions of political parties in youth wings,
students are engaged with school administrations and see student unions as a
meaningful way to political participation. People who have actually run in student
union elections have been found to have a higher probability of running for
political office later [i]
Example: In Georgia, IFES’s Democracy
and Citizenship course, which was piloted at six Tbilisi
universities in the 2011–2012 academic year and expanded to 22 universities and
seven cities by 2014, introduces Georgian students to fundamental concepts of
democratic citizenship, good governance, civil society, civic participation,
and human rights. Students enact these concepts into practice through civic action
projects where they are challenged to think critically about the needs of their
communities, and to research, develop, and implement plans for civic action
that address social problems they themselves identify. The course is a
semester-long accredited subject.
Example: Kenya: Campus Ambassador Program.
As part of its work in Kenya, IFES, through the Global Affairs Canada–funded
“Kenya Electoral System Support” program, provides grants to youth-based
organizations whose focus is encouraging greater and more meaningful youth
participation in Kenya’s electoral process. To achieve this, IFES works with
two local partners, Kubamba Trust and the Universities and College Students’
Peace Association of Kenya, to develop dynamic campus-based initiatives in institutions
of higher learning, which have approximately 2 million students, many of whom
are participating in the electioneering process for the first time. See Annex:
Kenya Campus Ambassadors.
Example. In Ukraine, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
Global Affairs Canada and UK Aid developed an innovative, semester-long,
university-level civic education course “Democracy: From Theory to Practice.”
The course (piloted at eight Ukrainian universities in September 2018), was
developed by Ukrainian and international experts, is tailored for Ukraine, and
is based on IFES’s global university-level civic education methodology:
Strengthening Engagement through Education for Democracy (SEED). Through SEED,
IFES in 2011 introduced an innovative, university-level civic education course
in Georgia that is currently offered
at most accredited universities in the country.[ii] See
Annex: IFES Local Solutions for Sustainable Civic Education at Georgian
Universities.
[i] Political training as a pathway to power: the
impact of participation in student union councils on candidate emergence,
Martin Lundin Oskar Nordström Skans Pär Zetterberg, WORKING PAPER 2013:14,
https://www.ifau.se/globalassets/pdf/se/2013/wp2013-14-political-training-as-a-pathway-to-power.pdf
[ii] http://voicenet.in/Article_IFES.htm
