At FAU, contact is also maintained with students at other universities, both statewide and nationally. That way, various associations provide a mouthpiece to draw attention to supra-regional grievances. One example is the inconvenient scheduling of Staatsexamen, a problem that was brought directly to the attention of the Ministry of Education. Several organisations have been established to address such concerns and needs.
BuFaTa
The so-called BUndesFAchschaftsTAgungen take place once a semester. Student representatives from all German-speaking student bodies of a department meet for a long weekend. This leads to a strong exchange of experiences between the individual universities, which is very important for us.
The BuFaTa traditionally have very original names, so the physics BuFaTa is called ZaPF, the maths one is called KoMa. Occasionally these names are also part of the programme. 😀
At such meetings we gather a lot of helpful input, both for internal organisational things and suggestions and improvements for our events. Networking also helps us to learn from the experiences of other universities and to quickly identify and solve potential problems.
LAK Bayern
The Landes-ASten-Konferenz Bayern (LAK) comprises all (university-wide) student representatives in Bavaria. AStA stands for Allgemeiner STudierendenAusschuss (comparable to the student convention). The Stuve of the FAU writes:
The FAU Student Council is actively involved within the LAK Bayern. As a state-wide umbrella organisation, LAK Bayern is the mouthpiece of the students of Bavaria and represents their interests vis-à-vis other associations, politics and society. Among other things, the LAK Bayern is involved in the association hearings within the framework of legislative procedures on Hochschulrecht and is in close contact with the Bavarian Ministry of Science, the members of the Higher Education Committee in the Bavarian Landtag and the chairpersons of the university associations – Universität Bayern and Hochschule Bayern – in particular to adress cross-university problems and concerns and to look for solutions.
fzs
The free association of student bodies (fzs) is the nationwide association of student representatives – similar to the LAK Bayern in Bavaria. The FAU Stuve is a member of the fzs and irregularly works out different position papers and statements with representatives from other universities or helps organise nationwide actions.