ELECTIONS 2024
The student union’s (UTSU) task is to stand for the students’ interests and needs and support them in protecting their rights. The union has more than 140 students from each institute and faculty, and their work is coordinated by the office and the board. The students are represented in every institute’s and faculty’s council, in the Senate, and every committee that influences student life. That means that the student representatives have an actual say in matters and an opportunity to advance life in the university. Every spring the student body of the University of Tartu elects new representatives, whose mandate lasts for one year. Additionally, the student councils will elect new representatives to UTSU's Monitoring Committee, to the UT Senate, and to the Federation of Estonian Student Unions (EÜS). These elections will take place in accordance with UTSU's electoral laws and the candidacy will be opened in April of 2024.
❗️❗️The applicants with their introductions will be here 22 April 14.00! ❗️❗️
VOTE HERE
UTSU's general elections schedule 2024
11.03 Announcing the elections
25.03-07.04 Application period
22.-30.04 Election period
03.05 Announcement of the election results
UTSU's general elections committee*
Renar Kihho, President of UTSU
Anna Martha Seer, member of UTSU's Monitoring Committee
Eve Pehter, University of Tartu's lawyer
*University of Tartu Student Union's general elections committee has been approved by the Parliament of University of Tartu Student Union.
What is the structure of UTSU?
The University has four faculties and 32 institutes, and almost all of them have student councils. There are 31 institute student councils, and each of them has 1 to 6 student representatives. They mostly make up one-fifth of the institute’s council and are there as members with the right to speak and submit proposals for changes.
Every faculty also has a student council that mostly makes up a fifth of the faculty’s council, where they are as members with the right to speak and submit proposals for changes. The faculty student councils form the student parliament, which is the student union’s highest decision-making body which elects the student body’s board, approves the student union’s budget, and adopts political positions.
The student representatives also belong to the University’s Senate, the highest academic decision-making body, and the Estonian student unions’ umbrella organisation, the Federation of Estonian Student Union‘s general meeting’s composition.
The student union’s work is coordinated by the board and the office. The board is made up of the student body’s president and up to two vice-presidents. The office assists the board in carrying out assignments. The work of the entire student union is reviewed by the monitoring committee.
Which student representative to apply for?
When you look at the grapgh of the structure of UTSU above, you can see that it is divided into four, each section and colour representing one faculty. From there, the faculties have been divided into institutes. The faculty student representatives support the institute student representatives and additionally represent them in the student union's highest decision-making body, the Parliament of the Student Union. Though both, the facutly and the institute student representatives, stand for the rights of the students, the two councils have different obligations. The main channels of communication for the student representatives are Microsoft Teams and Outlook.
The institute student representative stands for the students of their own institute. The student representatives of one institute form the institute student council (ISC).
The faculty student representative stands for the students of their own faculty. The student representatives of one faculty form the faculty student council (FSC).
In this table we have brought out the differences between the ISC and the FSC members and in the intersection below you can see the similarities. There are six work groups in UTSU: the work group of the chairmen, the communication work group, the study quality assurance work group, the UTSU spirit work group, ISC-masters work group and the foreign students work group.
💡What are the faculty and the institute councils?
The Faculty Council is the highest decision-making body of the faculty. Approving the development plans and the budget of the faculty, among other things, fall under the jurisdiction of the Faculty Council.
The Institute Council is the highest decision-making body of the institute. Some of the things that fall under the jurisdiction of the Institute Council are approving the development plans and the budget, making changes in the curriculums, and electing new employees.
💡What is attestation?
An attestation is essentially a performance review which takes place every 5 years. It is the regular evaluation of the competencies and work performance of the academic staff during the time preceding the attestation. Additionally, the staff member presents their plan for the next 5 years and the committee gives their suggestions. If the member of staff is also involved in teaching, a student has to be in the evaluation committee on behalf of the student body.