Report from the AEC Student Working Group

The SMS-AEC Student Working Group met for the first time in Odense, Denmark on the 9th of April. It aims to increase Student Voice within the AEC and the AEC community. It wants to offer Support to students, institutions and the AEC, have an Impact in each layer of the Higher Music Education community and bridge the gap between more progressive institutions and more traditional institutions where student representation is not yet self-evident.

The Student Working Group wants to do this by Networking during events, workshops, online and in real-life, while focusing on the Glocal perspective. The glocal perspective reflects both local and global considerations in solving issues. We will think global, but act local. This will allow the Student Voice in Europe to SING! (Support, Impact, Netork, Glocal) The Student WG already made its first steps by participating at the ANMA Annual meeting taking place from 9 to 11 April: The group presented the Student Handbook, contributed to breakout sessions discussing increased dialogue between institutions and their students, and reported its findings to the General Assembly at the last day of the conference. The students recommend everyone to bring a student to the next ANMA Annual Meeting and to the AEC Congress! The Student Handbook is a reference document for both directors and students to (further) develop the Student Representation System in each institution.

The Student WG also met with local and ANMA student representatives. They met on Wednesday morning, and used almost each coffee break and lunch to exchange experiences and ideas as well as contact details. The network has started and the Student WG hopes to grow its network more during the course of the SMS project.

The AEC SWG can be reached at studentworkinggroup@aec-music.eu