Abstract
The role of universities in preparing students to be active citizens within civil society has gained increasing attention. However, only limited research has been conducted on students’ views of universities as sites to learn representative democracy. To address the research gap, this article conducts eight semi-structured interviews with staff, student leaders and students without any positions in a case university. The students are undergraduate and post-graduate from different academic majors. Community of practice theory is employed to help understand students’ views of their experiences of representative democracy at the university. After analysing the interview data, the article finds that student leaders regard their role as mainly representing students and that all students in the study realise the importance of such democratic representation through participation. Importantly, through participation in representative democracy, students, especially student leaders, gain knowledge and skills on voting and elections. Interestingly, students’ sense of belonging is a result of participation in student union, society and club activities, which very likely includes voting and engagement with elections. Learning and belongingness are likely to make students participate more in future democratic representation activities. Although students give credit to the university’s role in promoting representative democracy, there are challenges. Specifically, the university is supposed to promote more participation in voting and elections for first-year students, and there is also concern that the short-term nature of positions in the student union may not allow real changes to be made. The findings shed some light on how students learn representative democracy in universities in neoliberal countries.
Highlights
Democracy can improve the quality of governing and enable government to promote the agenda of economic, social and environment sustainability
Belongingness was a result of their involvement in a range of university organisations including student unions and societies
This article has drawn upon interview data from a small group of student leaders and students without positions from a case university in the UK to explore students’
Summary
Democracy can improve the quality of governing and enable government to promote the agenda of economic, social and environment sustainability. Lower participation in democracy results in economic and social imbalances. Lower youth voter turnout means the underrepresentation and, inequality of social needs, which undermines the sustainability of future society. Education has been a pillar of the 2030 Framework for Sustainable Development as an inclusive vision of humanity that promotes well-being, justice and peace for all, and a sustainable relationship with the environment [1]. Higher education (HE) has been regarded as having three principal roles—intellectual development, preparing students for the labour market and preparing students for living in a society [2,3].
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.