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Turns a grievance into a proposal a body can approve.

You want to know who decides what, and by which rules – and you read the Terms of Reference before the meeting, not after. That makes you the Council’s most direct line into EUTOPIA’s decision-making: the Student Council representative now holds a vote in the Alliance Management Board, and someone has to use it well. Your risk is getting absorbed in procedure and forgetting who you represent.

This year: Take one student issue from complaint to a written position, and carry it to the body that can decide on it.

Based on: Strategy for Student Participation, S.O. 1.1 (effective and inclusive participation of students in EUTOPIA governance and decision-making) and actions 1.1.1–1.1.4; action 1.2.1 (Central Office support for position papers and policy briefs). The vote in the AMB: Governance and Management Handbook v1.2, sections 6.6 and 12.3.

Makes sure the Council’s knowledge survives the handover.

You notice when a good practice disappears because the person who knew it has left – and with a one-year mandate, that happens every year. You keep the contacts, the documents and the context, and you like explaining how things work to newcomers. Without you, every Council starts from zero. Your risk is doing the continuity work quietly, so nobody sees it or shares it.

This year: Build the handover file for your successor, and help connect the EUTOPIA Student Council with your own university’s student council.

Based on: Strategy for Student Participation, S.O. 1.2 (strengthening students’ capacities to participate), actions 1.2.3 (this training, delivered during the transition period), 1.2.5, 1.2.6 and 1.2.7; and the needs assessment in the same Strategy, which names high turnover and the resulting continuous loss of knowledge among the Council’s most pressing problems. The transition period itself: Handbook v1.2, section 12.3 (April/May elections, to allow an overlap).

Starts joint activities across universities.

You would rather create something new with students from other campuses than sit in another meeting. EUTOPIA runs largely on initiatives that start from below, and student-led actions funded through open calls have been among the most successful things the Council has done. You are the one who turns “someone should organise this” into an event with a date. Your risk is starting more than you can finish.

This year: Find partners at two other universities and submit one joint proposal to the next call for student-led activities.

Based on: Strategy for Student Participation, S.O. 1.3 (structured communication flow and cooperation between students across the Alliance), actions 1.3.1–1.3.3; and the record of Task 2.6, where five student-led actions selected through an open call were assessed as the most successful strand. The bottom-up logic: EUTOPIA MORE Joint Mission Statement and Strategy (Global Connecting Communities).

Represents EUTOPIA outward, and reports back.

You follow European higher education policy beyond your own university, and you would enjoy speaking for EUTOPIA in front of students from other alliances – at the European Student Assembly, or at the European Students’ Union conference of alliance student bodies. What makes an Ambassador useful is not being there but coming back: what you learn has to reach the people you represented. Your risk is that the experience stays yours alone.

This year: Go to one European event with a mandate from the Council, prepared on the relevant documents, and report back in writing afterwards.

Based on: Strategy for Student Participation, S.O. 1.4 (coordinated, visible and impactful student representation at European and international level), actions 1.4.1–1.4.4, in particular 1.4.3 (briefing representatives on relevant EU and Alliance documents) and 1.4.4 (feedback loops); and the Strategy’s finding that the benefits of participation in European events have so far tended to remain at individual level.