By Jacob Blasius, Executive Director of the Global Student Forum and Organising Partner of the Education and Academia Stakeholder Group
When students organise to influence education policy, they often face the challenge of connecting their local realities with global decision-making spaces. The Education and Academia Stakeholder Group (EASG) exists to bridge that gap within the United Nations system, bringing together civil society and academic organisations from across the world to advocate for the right to free, inclusive, and quality education.
The launch of the new EASG website, educationacademia.org, is an important development in that work. For students, it provides a clear entry point into a network that can amplify their voices in global forums like the High-Level Political Forum and other UN processes.
Until now, learning how to engage with EASG has often depended on personal connections or insider knowledge. This has meant that many student organisations, particularly those in underrepresented regions, have not been able to fully participate in the group’s activities. By centralising information on our priorities, statements, events, and membership process, the new platform reduces those barriers and makes our work more transparent.
For the Global Student Forum, which serves as one of the Organising Partners of EASG, this is not just an administrative improvement, it is a step toward ensuring that students can see themselves as legitimate actors in global education policy. Whether it is responding to a UN consultation, contributing to a position paper, or joining a side event, students will now have a place to find out how to get involved and what impact their engagement can have.
In a time when education is shaped by international agreements, funding priorities, and multilateral decision-making, students deserve a seat at the table, and they need the tools to claim it. The new EASG website is one such tool. It is a place where student organisations can access the information they need, connect with like-minded advocates, and bring their lived experiences into the heart of global policy debates.
