Co-participation
As a student of Leiden University, you can join a number of co-participation bodies together with university staff members. Co-participation is an important democratic right that enables you to play an active role in university decision-making and advisory processes.
Co-participation bodies
At Leiden University, you can take part in the following co-participation bodies:
University & faculty councils and programme committees
University council and faculty councils are democratically elected co-participation bodies that represent both students and staff of the university and its faculties. Co-participation also takes place at departmental level through programme committees. Learn more about these councils and committees.
Leiden Assessors Committee
The Leiden Assessors Committee (LAssO) is a consultative body made up of the student members of each faculty board.
Leiden University Student Platform
The Leiden University Student Platform (LUS) is a student-led ‘think-tank’ that discusses a wide variety of topics concerning students and annually presents the Leiden Teaching Prize.
University elections
Members of Leiden University’s co-participation bodies are democratically elected during university elections.
Financial support for co-participation
As a reward for your co-participation activities, you may be eligible to request financial support.
- Your faculty assessor has an overview of all student members of faculty co-participation bodies. On the basis of this, the assessor will send recommendations concerning the division of funds between all faculty co-participation body members to the Student and Educational Affairs department (SEA).
- At the end of each co-participation period, SEA will send you a decision award letter stating the number of number of months’ worth of financial support allocated to you.
- Request payment of your allocated financial support by following the procedures on the Board membership page.
Questions?
Questions about requesting financial support for your co-participation body activities? Contact your faculty assessor.
Student representatives: LLM Advanced Studies programmes
Students following LLM Advanced Studies programmes have access to additional assistance, in the form of their student representative. On this page you can read about what your student representative can do for you, as well as how to become a student representative and the duties involved.
Leiden Law School finds it important that Advanced LLM students have the opportunity to provide input and feedback on their study programmes. In this way, we can continue improving our programmes and enhancing the student experience year on year. Student representatives help to achieve this goal by acting as intermediaries between staff and students on Advanced LLM programmes.
Your student representative can:
- Relay programme-related feedback to staff on behalf of your class as a whole;
- Notify staff of any study-related issues being experienced by multiple classmates;
- Pass on suggestions concerning study and extra-curricular activities on behalf of your class;
- Advise you on setting up study groups and social activities for your class;
- Pass on general requests/advice from lecturers to your class as a whole, for example tips on class preparation and attendance.
Note: that if you are experiencing an issue that does not affect your class in general, for example individual academic or personal difficulties, you should instead speak directly to your programme coordinator.
Why become a student representative?
As a student representative you’ll play an important role for both your fellow students and your programme as a whole. In doing so, you’ll develop skills that will be a great asset to you in later life, such as communication, negotiation, lobbying, problem solving, teamwork and leadership. On top of that, it will look great on your CV and help you boost your professional and social network.
What are your duties as a student representative?
As a student representative you will:
- Act as intermediary between your classmates and programme staff;
- Provide your own feedback and suggestions concerning staff-student communication and the programme in general;
- Contribute to the integration of fellow students, by encouraging study groups and class social activities;
- Be accessible to your classmates, for example via a group app;
- Re-direct students to the appropriate staff member in the case of individual academic or personal issues;
- Assist in coordinating and organising events and workshops for your group;
- Liaise and exchange ideas with student representatives from other Adv. LLM programmes during bi-monthly meetings;
- Draw up an exit report upon completion of your study programme;
- Take a seat in the Programme Advisory Committee.*
* The LLM Advanced Studies programmes have a collective Programme Advisory Committee (PAC), which meets twice a years and consists of both staff and students. The PAC monitors the quality of education, carries out annual assessments, issues advice and audits student feedback.
How to become a student representative
During your programme introduction session, your coordinator will explain the role of student representative and ask students to volunteer for the position by email. Approximately four to six weeks later, once you have got to know each other better, your coordinator will set up an anonymous online pole via Qualtrics, through which your group can indicate its preference for student representative.
Based on the result of the pole, and also taking into account a representative mix of cultures and genders, your coordinator will select two or three student representatives, depending on the size of your class.
After you have been appointed, you will be invited to attend a workshop given by the Office for International Education, to learn about your new role and meet the student representatives from other Adv. LLM programmes.