Student Initiatives 2012
The aim of the Student Initiatives is to empower students to address issues related to systemic change in higher education. SI supports the involvement of students in the democratization of the educational process and in building issue-based transnational student alliances in South Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The International Higher Education Support Program (HESP) of the Open Society Foundations is pleased to invite project proposals for new projects from students within its Student Initiatives from university student communities in Georgia and Ukraine.
I. Student Solidarity for Antidiscrimination and Access to Higher Education
We are inviting project proposals that would study the current practices of exclusion and advocate for the access to and inclusion in higher education of students on the grounds of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, religion and sexual orientation.
We are looking for student organizations that are driven by the spirit of solidarity among various student groups, take a broad look at the practices of exclusion, discrimination, humiliation and hatred resulting in limiting particular student groups’ access to higher education and advocate for access and inclusion of excluded groups. We are particularly interested in receiving proposals that cover two or more dimensions of exclusion, stress on building solidarity among and with discriminated groups.
The project proposals should include the following elements:
education (awareness building), research (in-depth study of the current situation) and advocacy to aim at making a tangible impact on opening access to universities for the excluded and underrepresented groups by means of cultural, policy and legislative change.
II. Examination of Higher Education Reforms and the Quality of Higher Education
We are inviting project proposals by student organizations that will examine the implementation of the recent higher education reforms at national level and explore its potential and limitations for fostering higher education reforms from the students’ point of view. The projects should focus on problem areas which are connected to students’ needs and expectation; what exactly students perceive as the outcomes of the reform at the areas such as students’ freedom to choose, equal access, transparency, student mobility, student governance; student centered learning, etc.
The project proposals must include the following elements: education (awareness building), research (study of the current situation) and advocacy.
III. Students against Corruption
We are inviting project proposals for small projects by local student groups and organizations that address corruption issues in higher education. We are interested to receive project proposals which are dealing with any type of corruptive practices students may experience – from the intellectual degradation and students’ dishonesty, low quality and irrelevance of higher education studies to the abuse of administrative power, lack of transparency of university functioning and corruption of various student services, such as for example distribution of dormitory space and others. We are also looking for proposals that address issues related to possible manipulation of structures of student self-governance to political, economic and other ends.
The project proposals must include awareness building and advocacy elements.
All submitted project proposals must meet the following requirements:
• initiated and implemented by undergraduate students;
• submitted and implemented by existing student organizations.
Project proposals may cover the preparation and actual running of the proposed activities (including preparatory meeting and/or training for network building in Group I and II). The maximum length of a project is 12 months.
The submitted project proposal must include a completed Information Sheet, the detailed description of the project idea and the planned activities, the timeline of the project activities, expected outcomes of the project, short introduction of the student organization(s), CV of the project leader(s) and the detailed budget of the project in USD or EUR.
Full project proposal should be submitted electronically to si@osi.hu no later than 28 February, 2012.
Selection Procedure:
An International Expert Committee will perform the selection of the applications. The results of the selection will be announced in March 2011. (In cases where minor changes are needed, applicants may be asked to resubmit their project proposals.)
Possible project start: April/May 2012.
For additional information please contact:
Ms. Krisztina Szeberin
Program Coordinator
Higher Education Support Program
Open Society Institute-Budapest
Phone: (+36 1) 882-3850
Fax: (+36 1) 882-3112
E-mail: si@osi.hu
Website: www.soros.org/initiatives/hesp
Click here to download the application form.
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