There’s never been a more important time for UK SUs to nurture links with Europe – and our partners around the continent have much to offer to aid the development of student representation, democracy and services in the student interest.
Back in 2017 a group of SU officers and managers toured around Scandinavia on an extraordinary and magical five day journey packed full of lessons and learning – and since then we’ve organised tours to Scandinavia, the Baltics, the Low Countries, Finland and the Balkans and Austria.
So in 2025 we’re doing it all again. Our 5 day tour in January will travel to Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Poland, we’ll do 48 hours in Stockholm to learn from our friends in Sweden, and at Easter we’ll be off to Portugal.
Details below are provisional – and we’re expecting demand to be high, so please don’t book travel or accommodation yet. If you’re keen to come, we do need an expression of interest now – and we’ll then confirm the details of what you need to do next early next month.
Why and how
We’re pretty confident that this will be the best bit of training and development spend you’ll make this year. Participants will:
- Engage with multiple delivery structures for student activities and SU volunteers and staffing
- See a range of models for democratic structures, including elections and policy making
- Generate new ideas for campaigning, collaboration and influencing in the student interest
- Learn about new types of regulation over student voice and the student condition
- Identify different ways to do belonging, student activities and employability
- Have the chance to network with other SUs
SUs normally send an elected officer and a manager. You are responsible for booking flights and accommodation (both of which are fairly inexpensive at that time of year). We book the in-country travel, plan the itinerary and set up the meetings with the local and national SUs.
It’s an amazing opportunity to spend time with other SU officers and managers, build links with European counterparts and bring back endless ideas for making student lives and SUs better.
The Visegrád Group: Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Poland
Travelling on Sunday January 5th, the tour will begin on Monday January 6th in Budapest – where we’ll meet up with SUs, the National Union in Hungary and even the voluntary student vocational college system that organises in the area. We’ll learn about doctoral student representation, student foundations, student-run festivals, and academic communities fostering professional development.
On Day Two we’ll board our bus and travel to Gyor – where we’ll find out more about potroasts, pandemic rebuilding and festival season in Hungary. Later we’ll cross the border into Slovakia and travel to the capital Bratislava, where we’ll learn about a student self-government project, mapping of student residences, support for student members of Senate and the attacks students are facing on their education in the country.
On Wednesday we’ll move to Prague, where we’ll find out more about how new students are supported, check out a spring and student life celebration, understand how student clubs work at faculty level, and check out a unique student cultural centre. We’ll then travel into Poland.
Day Four will see us visit Wrocklaw, where we’ll discover a foundation with a focus on student employment, the big tradition of Juwenalia, an SU’s own language school and a system of student ombuds that helps resolve complaints.
Then on Friday we’ll be in Krakow where we’ll engage with a national training programme on rights, expert commissions, a fascinating project financing system, an AI Days event, the duty on SUs to reveal study secrets, halls with their own venues, an exam season emergency service and “Books in the Dark”.
We’d expect the cost of flights and accommodation to come in at around £450 depending on where you fly from and where you stay, with an in-country travel fee of £250pp on top of that (that covers the coach and we spend any excess on meals). You’ll also need some spending money for additional meals etc.
48 hours in Stockholm
Monday 24th Feb to 25th February 2025
Travelling on the Sunday or early on the Monday, we’ll spend time with the NUS In Sweden, the City’s own Federation of SUs, and meet multiple SUs around a city grappling with an acute accommodation crisis. We’ll also look at work on accreditation for reps and volunteers, democratic structures, innovative student buildings and approaches to peer support and wellbeing. More detail will follow soon.
48 hours in Portugal
21st and 22nd April 2025
Travelling to Lisbon on Sunday 20th, we’ll begin on by interacting with Portugal’s national union and engaging with SUs on housing and employment rights and student ombuds schemes. We’ll then jump on the bus and travel to Porto, where we’ll meet multiple SUs. More detail will follow soon.
What is the business case?
We’ve uploaded an example business case for use internally here. The feedback from previous trips suggests it’s the best bit of development/training spend you’ll make all year.
What do we do next
For the Visegrád trip, we will need to confirm coach bookings and that we have sufficient numbers on each trip to proceed by Friday 25th October so it would helpful if SUs could confirm interest by then – we’ll then allocate for others joining later on first come, first served.
Don’t book flights or accomm until we have confirmed with you! We also may need to ration places – there are strict limits on each trip. Let us know now if you have any questions.
We also recognise that some may need to apply for a Shengen Visa now – if that’s you, get in touch and we’ll issue you with an invite letter and further detail.
