What is FINST?
“Financing the Students’ Future” is one of ESU’s flagship projects, focusing on financing and in particular on students’ view on financing of higher education in European countries. The main aims of FINST are increasing the knowledge on the different HE financing systems in Europe, what effects they have on students and enhancing the capacity of our members, the National Unions of students with regards to active involvement on higher education funding reforms.
For the past two years we have been gathering data from various sources, discussing the challenges of financing with students and stakeholders from all over Europe starting with the Launch Conference in Tallinn, continuing with the Consultations seminar in Liverpool and European training in Bucharest. Along this period of time, we have been writing articles on the most significant areas of higher education financing, designing future funding scenarios as well as preparing student policy recommendations on funding of Higher Educations.
This website contains the outcomes of the project, but is not meant to be only a source of information, but we would also like to invite you to share your information and views with us and help us shape our database and polices.
The FINST project is co-financed with help from the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme.
Project partners
The FINST project is carried out by ESU together with four partners.
1. HIS - Hochschul-Informations-System GmbH (Germany). HIS employs about 300 people and is a service for higher education. HIS has been involved in several international research projects and has been international coordinator of EUROSTUDENT since its inception in 1996. For more information about HIS, have a look at their website: www.his.de.
2. EUL - Eesti Uliopilaskondade Liit MTU (Estonia). EUL is a federation of Estonian Student Unions and represents students' interest on national and international level. EUL is a member union of ESIB (ESU). More information about EUL can be found on www.eyl.ee.
3. OH - Osterreichische Hochschulerinnenschaft (Austria). The Austrian National Union of Students (OH) is the only recognised representation of all students at Austrian universitis and Padagogische Akademien (Teacher Training Academies). OH is also a member unionof ESIB (ESU). Check out the OH website for more information: www.oeh.ac.at
4. NUS-UK - National Union of Students NUS UK (Unitied Kingdom). NUS UK is a voluntary membership organisation of 600 students' unions, amounting to more than 95 per cetnt of all higher and further education unions in the UK. NUS UK is also a member union of ESIB (ESU). More information about NUS UK can be found on www.nus.org.uk
Past FINST events
2 - 4 of May 2011: FINST Launch conference “Financing Higher Education - Financing the Students’ Future", Tallinn, Estonia
24 - 27 of November 2011: FINST Consultations Seminar, Liverpool, UK
19 - 21 of April 2012: FINST European Training, Bucharest, Romania
29 of January 2013: FINST FInal Conference, Brussels, Belgium