Engagement

There are many different ways to get involved at our university. These include the many different initiatives and project groups recognized by the student parliament, as well as faculty-level committees.

Student Parliament

The student parliament (StuPa) consists of up to 21 students from different groups and lists (analogous to political parties in the Bundestag or other national parliaments). The Stupa elects and controls the AStA, determines the budget of the student body and decides on motions that affect the students. In order to fulfill its tasks, the StuPa can appoint committees. These normally consist of up to 7 people. One of these committees is the Budget Committee (HHA), which exists in every StuPa. The HHA is responsible for auditing the budget and the financial statements. More about the Stupa here.

Initiatives & Project Groups

Initiatives are groups that are recognized by the student parliament. The basic requirement for recognition is that the initiative participates in fulfilling the responsibilities of the student body (this must be stated in the initiative’s constitution).

The student parliament can transfer tasks of the student body to an already recognized student initiative for a limited or an unlimited period of time. This initiative then becomes a project group of the student body of the University of Paderborn. Project groups are allocated funds by the budget of the student body of Paderborn University, which are generally much larger than the funds of student initiatives.

An overview of the recognized initiatives and project groups can be found on the StuPa website.

Here you can find information about forming an initiative or project group.

Fachschaftsrat

The Fachschaftsräte represent the interests of the students in the first instance towards lecturers and usually also take over the organization of the orientation week, in which the first-year students receive a lot of information and gain their first experiences with the university. The Fachschaftsrat helps students of the respective study program with problems of all kinds, for example, in disputes with lecturers, if they set unreasonable requirements for instance.

Here you can find a list of all Fachschaftsräte.

Fachschaftsvertretung

The Fachschaftsvertretung (FSV) is the controlling body at the faculty level and is elected annually by the students. It consists of 15 to 27 members (depending on the size of the faculty). The FSV elects the Fachschaftsausschuss, which represents the student council internally and externally, as well as conducts the current (primarily financial) business of the Fachschaft. In order to be able to represent the different interests of the students within a Fachschaft, the Fachschaft can appoint one or more Fachschaftsräte for individual study programmes as executive commitees. These have three to ten members and are usually elected directly by the respective students and confirmed in this position by the FSV.

Faculty Council

The Faculty Council is the democratic body with the highest position in a given faculty, i.e. all lecturers, scientific and non-scientific members and students. It is composed of eight professors, three scientific and one non-scientific member, and three students. The latter are directly elected once a year by the students of the faculty and are supposed to actively represent the students’ interests. The Faculty Council decides on appointments, budget issues, appoints commissions, elects and controls the Dean, Vice Dean and Dean of Studies and makes all important decisions in the faculty.

Senate

The Senate is the highest decision-making body within the University. It is composed of fixed majorities of the individual status groups of the university members. The students of UPB are represented by six student senators who each have a vote in the senate and can represent the interests of any UPB student. These senators are elected annually by all students of Paderborn University.