Organization

The highest decision-making body of the Student Union of the University of Vaasa is a 30-member council, whose members are elected for a two year term. All VYY members have the right to vote in Representative Council elections, that is, all the university basic degree students as well as those exchange and post-graduate students who are registered as attending and have paid the Student Union fee.

The Representative Council determines the Student Union’s strategy as well as, among other things, the amount of the membership fee and the action plan. The Representative Council also appoints the Executive Board and chooses the Secretary General.

Meetings of the Representative Council are open to all VYY members and the Representative Council meets about once a month throughout the academic year.

Chairperson of the representative council

The chairperson of the representative council has the highest position of trust in the Student Union. Their duty is to lead the representative council meetings. In case you have questions about the council, please contact the Chairman of the Representative Council or the Secretary General.

Representative council of term 2024-2025

The chair of the representative council 2024: Tiina Saukko (Warranttilaiset). Their email is epj@vyy.fi.

The Representative Council groups’ numbers of seats and their chairpersons’ names for the term 2024-2025

• Warranttilaiset, 12 seats, group leader Lauri Hasa 
• Unioni, 3 seats, group leader Lauri Suojanen
• Tuttilaiset, 6 seats, group leader Henrik Seppä-Lassila
• Kampusporvarit, 6 seats, group leader Nuutti Metsämäki
• Punavihreä Allianssi, 3 seats, group leader Veeti Katainen

The Executive Board is responsible for operative control of the Student Union of the University of Vaasa. The Board consists of 6-10 members elected by the Representative Council. Members of the Board are working together with the hired in-house staff of the University.

In addition to supervision of student interests, board members work on culture and leisure issues as well as business relations tasks. The Board intends to ensure that every student at the University could contribute to their studies flexibly and at a reasonable pace and take care of themselves in their free time. The Executive Board also chooses the VYY staff.

The Executive Board meets approximately once a week throughout the school year.

In case you have any questions about the executive board, please contact the Chair of the Board or the Secretary General.

Administration student representatives (HallOpEds, from ‘hallinnon opiskelijaedustajat’) play an important role in decision-making at the university. Their mission is to represent the students’ points of view, all the while taking into account the interests of education and research in general. In addition to decision-making, the tasks include the preparation for meetings and dialogue within the Student Union, students associations and among students, as well as reporting for and communication with the above-mentioned decision-making entities after the decision-making process. The hallopeds represent the entire Student Union and all students, providing efficient advocacy for matters that are important to students. The decisions that are made by the University’s governing bodies affect students in particular.

You can find the minutes of each meeting of each decision-making body on the university intranet, Messi. You can log in to Messi with your own student IDs.

Administration student representatives in the University of Vaasa and interest groups

University of Vaasa Board (1.1.2024–31.12.2025)

The highest decision-making body of the University of Vaasa is the Board, which is selected by the University Collegium. The University of Vaasa Board has nine members, five of whom are from outside the university and four from within the university community.

University Collegium (1.1.2024–31.12.2025)

The University Collegium consists of elected members of the university community. The collegium has 15 members who represent professors, teaching staff, researchers, other staff and students. The University Collegium selects the members of the university Board.

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT GROUPS (1.1.2024–31.12.2025)

School of Accounting and Finance  

School of Marketing and Communication 

School of Management 

School of Technology and Innovations 

The Council of Education (1.1.2024–31.12.2025)

The University has a Council of Education, which is the administrative body responsible for the quality of education. The council is chaired by the Vice-Rector and includes one representative from each of the Schools, as well as nine other representatives of the University community and their personal deputy members.

The Council of Research (1.1.2024–31.12.2025)

The University has a Council of Research, which is the administrative body responsible for the quality of research. 

Language Centre management group (1.1.2024–31.12.2025)

Interested in becoming a representative?

New representatives are selected in odd-numbered years at the end of the year. During the season, additional applications for student representative positions in the administration will also open. When the student representative position opens, the board opens a call for the position. After this, you can inform about your interest in the position to kirjaamo@vyy.fi. The applications will be anonymized and the halloped selection task force will make a proposal to the representative council. Decisions about halloped selections are made by the representative council of the student union. 

The open positions can be found here.

If you have any questions regarding student representative work, please contact the Specialist in Students Interests eva@vyy.fi.
 

RESIGNATION

When the situation approaches where you will graduate soon, move away from Vaasa for a longer period of time, or feel that you are not capable of working as a halloped, you can submit your resignation to the student union. You can send your resignation request to eva@vyy.fi and paasihtieri@vyy.fi. Getting the information is important in order to ensure that the necessary number of student representatives will always be present at the meetings in the future.

Contact information

Specialist in Students Interests 
Elli Uusi-Kokko
044 324 8961
eva@vyy.fi
Telegram: @VYYedunvalvonta

Secretary General
Lauri Tuohiniemi
044 324 8964
paasihteeri@vyy.fi 
Telegram: @VYYpaasihteeri

Committees founded by the Executive Board are a part of VYY. Committees’ activities are open for all VYY members. Committees are led by members of the Executive Board in cooperation with the VYY secretaries. These committees are open and in many ways the best opportunity for VYY members to participate in and to influence the Student Union’s activities. Committees meet approximately four times per semester.

Committee of Student Interests

The Committee of Student Interests or EVVK (Edunvalvontavaliokunta) deals with a wide range of issues related to studying and student life. The discussion sessions are organized under the event name #UVA-ahistus, where you will have a chance to discuss with the board of VYY about current modern issues, like the development of campus, problems with studies and studying, services available at the campus, student housing, tuition fees, english-speaking services etc. Each discussional session has a selected theme. Information about the discussional sessions are given on a telegram-group #UVA-ahistus, and you may join it from here.