Student participation in Higher Education Governance and Institutional Quality

The article addresses the issue of student participation in higher education governance and of how this relates to institutional quality. A preliminary study on the topic is reported. The study was conducted by the author in her capacity of the student ombuds1 in a Portuguese higher education institution and was based on her five-year experience as an ombuds, complemented by literature review. The sociology of public action was adopted in order to provide a theoretical framework, alongside with the stakeholders approach. The overarching assumption of the study was that students’ actual participation in the governance of higher education institutions is very low in practice, no matter how valuable it appears in European educational discourse and is integrated in Portuguese policies and legislation. The study has identified a number of problems and obstacles associated with institutional features and students’ role as a particular type of stakeholder, which constrain students’ participation and contribution to quality assurance. This has highlighted the importance of developing research on the topic and has provided a basis for a collaborative research project that is currently under development, where teachers and students’ representatives at national and local level are involved.