What does meaningful international student solidarity look like when students organise under very different political, social and institutional conditions?
As part of the Global Education Project, Global Student Forum Steering Committee member and Commonwealth Students’ Association representative, Anika Joshi facilitated a workshop with SAMOK – the Finnish National Union of University of Applied Sciences Students. The session brought together SAMOK’s board and student representatives from more than 20 Finnish universities of applied sciences.
Through interactive exercises and discussion, participants explored differences in student activism, institutional protections and political participation across the Global North and Global South. They also tackled practical questions around international tuition fees, restrictions on student protest, representation, accessibility and the barriers created by finances and visas.
A central message emerged: international solidarity does not require students everywhere to have the same priorities or use the same methods. It requires listening across different experiences, recognising unequal access to power and building structures that allow students from different contexts to participate on more equal terms.
For the Global Student Forum, these conversations are an important part of strengthening connections between student movements across regions, not by overlooking their differences, but by making those differences part of how we understand and practise global student solidarity.
