On November 17, the International Students’ Day, the European Students’ Union and the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU) marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi storming of the University of Prague. During a three-day conference in Brussels, speakers from the student movements in Europe, Latin America and Asia spoke about the challenges in their regions, and expressed their wish for continued global student cooperation.

At the same time, tens of thousands of students in Austria, Germany and Switzerland have protested against the privatisation of higher education, financial barriers to higher education (study costs and tuition fees) and bad implementation of the Bologna Process that affects their academic experience. In Austria, students have been occupying universities for several weeks.  You can read more on the webpages of the Austrian, German and Swiss national student unions.

At the conference in Brussels, EU Commissioner for Education, training, culture and youth, Maroš Šefčovič, was one of the people who took part in the celebration of the International Students' Day. In a speech to participants, Šefčovič emphasized the role of students and young people in bringing about change, and spoke of his own experience from the Velvet Revolution in Prague and Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Sjur Bergan, Head of the Department of Higher Education and History Teaching at the Council of Europe, also stressed the role of students as contributors to educational and societal change. He also issued a warning to both students and others:
“Democracy is not like riding a bike. Practising democracy is more like learning a language: you have to keep practising it. If you don’t, you’ll forget how to do it”, Bergan said.

Students from Iran have long been barred from attending ESU events due to visa problems and administrative red tape. They sent a greeting video to the participants at the conference, outlining the Iranian student movement's fight for democracy and human rights. The video can be viewed here.