Elena L. Syrtsova

Vyatka State University of Humanities

Kirov, Russia

 

STUDENTS’ SELF-GOVERNMENT AS A FACTOR OF DEVELOPING THEIR AUTONOMY

 

The formation of students' professional and personal position and development of their educational autonomy is supplied by organization of students' self-government in higher school. We suppose that autonomy is a personal quality, combining skills to gain new knowledge and to use it creatively in different situations.

Under system of students' self-government in higher school is understood holistic mechanism, allowing a student to participate actively in higher school management through collective interacting bodies on all levels of higher school management, including dormitory and different public students' organizations.

The students' self-government gains social and practical nature, stipulated by students' conscious responsible relation to possibilities and prospects for their professional and cultural self-determination.

In modern interpretation of the students' self-government are detected three main beginnings.

1.     The students' self-government is a required condition for students to realize their creative activity and amateur performances in educational and cognitive, scientific, professional and cultural relations.

2.     The students' self-government is a real form of student democracy with corresponding rights, possibilities and responsibility.

3.     The students' self-government is a mean of social and legal self-defense.

The main aim for organizing the system of students' self-government in "Vyatka State University of Humanities" is to provide the conditions for development of intelligence, creative activity, initiative, self-regulation, humane attitude to each person, democratic consciousness.

To achieve declared aim were are solving four problems:

       to enrich the experience of students' relations themselves, to society, to surrounding world;

       to intensify the role of the student public bodies in education;

       to create the social and cultural space for realization of students' public-significant initiatives;

       to increase efficiency and success of training, to actuate student's independent creative activity in educational process in the context of continuous education;

       to form the needs in studying actual scientific problems on elected professions through the system of student scientific creative activity;

       to bring up responsibility of student groups for discipline, labour, approving the moral position of personalities and group, for development of creative personality of specialists;

       to develop and deepen initiative of student groups in civil education;

       to establish the democratic lifestyle based on high mutual responsibility, social fairness, positive moral and psychological climate, principles of humanistic morality, intolerances to antisocial behaviour;

       to assist the uniting student academic groups.

The students' self-government is a necessary factor for activating public life of the youth. In VGGU it is based on principles of voluntary, electivity, reporting, representation of student groups and others The students' self-government consists of several electoral organs and has a clear structure.

The students' self-government in VGGU functions on three levels: local, level of a faculty and level of the university. The supreme authority of the students' self-government is a conference of the student active group, which elects the Student Council of the university. The main subject of its activity is a realization of projects on directions "Sport and health", "Culture and creative activity", "Public-useful activity", "Science". The initiators and organizers of the projects are students themselves, united in creative groups.

The most important role in system of the student home rule must belong to academic groups. The main mean of organizing students' activity is a method of collective creative activity. Firstly a tutor (a fifth-year student) helps first-year students to use this method, lately it becomes the duty a leader of an academic group. Gradually creative groups are formed according specific students' interests: science, creative activity, sport, etc. Representatives of these groups are included in the active.

The main functions of the students' self-government in VGGU are following.

Self-activation. A greater number of the members of groups are joined in solving different management problems, in systematic work on involving students in management of new spheres of activity.

Organizing self-regulation. Members of student groups must act flexible realizing their functions. The student group must be able to change its structure for more successful solving of the organizational problems.

Collective self-control. Self-government bodies realize the constant self-awareness of their activity and search more efficient ways of solving management problems.

The main directions of students' self-government activity in VGGU are research, cultural, information, sport and health . Each of directions has its own contents.

Research activity of the students' self-government is directed on:

       discovering talented students;

       organizing scientific activity of students;

       coordinating activity of student scientific society;

       helping in undertaking different scientific and practical conferences, special seminars, scientific discussions, a week of the student science.

Cultural activity is orientated on:

       organizing and undertaking cultural actions;

       saving traditions of student creative activity;

       supporting activity of student creative groups.

Sport and health direction of activity of the students' self-government promotes:

       working of different athletic sections in the university;

       organizing and participating in different sport competitions.

Realization of information activity of the students' self-government provides organizing and operating of information space in higher school, showing the most significant actions in the life of student community.

The main criterion of efficiency of students' self-government activity is concluded in increasing level of activity of each student in different spheres. Current control is realized in faculties, intermediate control includes analysis of concrete action. Total control is based on reports of the work of students' self-government during the year.

The students' self-government in higher school develops on the strength of objective circumstance of social life. It is intended to express students' interests, which need in social and legal protection. Nowadays the students' self-government gains social and practical nature, caused by necessary of students' conscious responsible relations to possibilities and prospects of their professional and cultural self-determination.

Thereby, organization of the students' self-government allows to develop creative initiative of students, their responsibility and civil position, independence and social activity. Realization of the main trends of the students' self-government activity (research, cultural, information, sport and health) allows in complex to encourage education of spiritual-moral, professional and civil culture of students, to develop their autonomy. So constant work on self-realization, self-education, self-improvement is necessary. But this possible only when a student is an active subject of the university public life, when he participates in organizing this life, creating and maintaining traditions of a faculty and the university, when he realizes his responsibility for quality of his preparation for future professional and civil activity.