Student agency and student impact on higher education: through service and politics
The study of higher education impact on students has been one of the most prolific subfields in sociology of higher education and explores variety of ways that higher education influences student outcomes measured as learning outcomes, graduation rates, employability, etc. Yet, this entire field of research ignores the fact that student too have impact on their colleges and universities. Klemenčič corrects this one sided view by introducing theory of student agency as students’ capabilities to intervene in and influence their own learning pathways and educational environments.
Klemenčič applies this theory to investigating student voice in university quality (see The student voice in quality assessment and improvement (2018) and Student involvement in quality enhancement (2015)) and student agency and actorhood in student centered learning and teaching (see Students as Actors and Agents in Student-Centred Higher Education (2020)). Klemenčič's proposition of student impact on higher education, covers five distinct yet interrelated domains of students excercising their agency: through representation (ie.,student representative associations, such as student governments, unions, councils), through activism, through voluntary service on campus (such as leadership of student groups), through student campus employment (see 2020 Springer encyclopedia entry Student campus employees) and through consumer signalling and behaviour. Klemenčič introduces the concept of student administrators, that is, students who daily cross the boundary of merely being students and recipients of university services to participate in university programming and operations (see SAGE entry Student activism and student organizations (2020)).
Much of Klemenčič's research has been devoted to the study of contemporary student politics (see her edited special issue and lead article Student power in a global perspective and contemporary trends in student organising. Studies in Higher Education (2014 Online First)), and in collaboration with Thierry Luesher and James Jowi in African context (see edited book Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism (2016) and special issue Student Power in Africa (2015)).
Her foremost interest in student politics is on student representation in higher education governance and the characteristics of student governments as part of higher education politics. Klemenčič is first to have theorized student governments in the special issue she edited and the lead article Student Representation in Western Europe (2012). She further developed theories of student governments in the encyclopedia entres on this topic as well in article Transnational student associations in the European multilevel governance of higher education policies (with Fernando Galan, former president of the European Students' Union).
Relevant publications:
Student voice in quality assurance
2020 Students as Actors and Agents in Student-Centred Higher Education. In Sabine Hoidn and Manja Klemenčič (eds.) Routledge International Handbook on Student-Centred Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Routledge)
2018 The student voice in quality assessment and improvement. In Ellen Hazelkorn, Hamish Coates and Alex McCormick (eds.) Research Handbook on Quality, Performance and Accountability in Higher Education, pp. 332-343 (Edward Elgar Publishing)
2018 PASET STUDENT ENGAGEMENT SURVEY METHODOLOGY. Prepared for World Bank, Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET).
2017 Erasmus students’ involvement in quality enhancement of Erasmus+ mobility through digital ethnography and ErasmusShouts. Studies in Higher Education 42(5): 925-932 (co-authored with Martin Žnidaršič, Anže Vavpetič, and Matej Martinc (Department of Knowledge Technologies, Jožef Stefan Institute)
2015 Student involvement in quality enhancement. In Jeroen Huisman, Harry de Boer, David Dill and Manuel Souto-Otero (eds.) The Handbook of Higher Education Policy and Governance, pp. 526-543 (Palgrave Macmillian)
2015 On the use of student surveys. In Remus Pricopie, Peter Scott, Jamil Salmi and Adrian Curaj (eds.) Future of Higher Education. Volume I and Volume II. Dordrecht: Springer (co-authored with Igor Chirikov)
Student politics (conceptual, international comparative, Europe, Africa)
2020 Student politics. In Shin, J. C., Teixeira, P. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions (Springer, 2020)
2020 Student activism and student organizations. In Miriam E. David and Marilyn J. Amey (eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education, 5v. (SAGE, 2020)
2018 Student Politics: Between Representation and Activism. In Hamish Coates, Brendan Cantwell and Roger King (eds.) Handbook on the Politics of Higher Education, pp. 468 - 486 (Edward Edgar Publishing) (with Bo Yun Park)
2017 Global: Student Activism Remains Potent Force Worldwide. In Georgiana Mihut, Philip G. Altbach and Hans de Wit (eds.) Global Higher Education: Insights from Key Global Publications. (pp 227-230) Rotterdam, Netherlands: Springer (with Philip G. Altbach)
2016 Student power in twenty-first century Africa: The character and role of student organising. In R. Brooks (ed.) Student politics and protest: International perspectives pp. 113-128 (Routledge) (with Thierry Luesher-Mamashela)
2016 Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism, African Higher Education Dynamics Series, Vol. 2. Capetown, South Africa: African Minds Publisher (with Thierry Luesher Mamashela and James Otieno Jowie)
2016 Student Organising in African Higher Education: Polity, Politics and Policies. In Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism, edited by LUESCHER-MAMASHELA, T., KLEMENČIČ, M., OTIENO JOWIE, J. Captown, South Africa: African Minds Publisher. (with Thierry Luesher Mamashela and Tabo Mugume)
2015 Student Power in Africa, Journal of Student Affairs in Africa 3 (1) 2015 (edited with Thierry Luesher Mamashela and James Otieno Jowie )
2014 Student power in a global perspective and contemporary trends in student organising. Studies in Higher Education 39(3) 2014
Student governments and student representation (conceptual, international comparative, Europe, Africa)
2020 Student governments. In Shin, J. C., Teixeira, P. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions (Springer, 2020)
2020 Higher Education Institution Governing Boards: Student Board Members. In Miriam E. David and Marilyn J. Amey (eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education, 5v. (SAGE, 2020)
2017 Transnational student associations in the European multilevel governance of higher education policies. European Educational Research Journal pp. 1-20 (co-authored with Fernando Miguel Galán Palomares)
2015 Student representation in higher education governance in the Western Balkans. Higher Education in Russia and Beyond (HERB) 1(3) 2015, pp. 6-7
2012 Student Representation in Western Europe: introduction to the special issue. European Journal of Higher Education 2(1) 2012: 2-19
2012 How ESIB-The National Unions of Students in Europe got into the Bologna Process. In Ivosević, V., Päll, A. and M. Vukasović (eds.) ESU turns 30! Fighting for student rights since 1982 (pp. 17-28). Brussels: European Students’ Union
2012 The changing conceptions of student participation in HE governance in the EHEA. In Adrian Curaj, Sir Peter Scott, Lazăr Vlasceanu, Lesley Wilson (eds.) European Higher Education at the crossroads – Between the Bologna Process and national reforms (pp. 631-653). Heidelberg: Springer
2011 The public role of higher education and student participation in higher education governance. In: BRENNAN, J., SHAH, T. (eds.). Higher education and society in changing times: looking back and looking forward (pp. 74-83). London: Centre for Higher Education Research and Information, CHERI
2011 Student representation in European higher education governance: principles and practice, roles and benefits. In Eva Egron-Polak, Jürgen Kohler, Sjur Bergan and Lewis Purser (eds.) Leadership and Governance in Higher Education. Handbook for Decision-makers and Administrators (pp. 1-26). Berlin: RAABE Academic Publishers