Student advocacy

The student union SAMMAKKO is the students’ voice in SAMK’s development and decision-making. Students can contact SAMMAKKO, if something doesn’t go as planned, for example in a course, in learning environments or there’s something in the UAS atmosphere. We provide feedback surveys, collect student experiences and promote student development ideas and suggestions in SAMK and beyond.

What is student advocacy?

The statutory task of the student union is to monitor the interests of students in the university. The University of Applied Sciences Act defines that “the purpose of the student union is to act as a liaison between its members and to promote their societal, social and spiritual aspirations, as well as their aspirations related to study and the student’s position in society”.

Student advocacy at SAMK

The student union ensures that the voice of the students is heard in the SAMK community. Through the student union, students have, among other things, access to SAMK’s development groups, some of the management teams and SAMK Oy’s Board of Directors. In these gatherings, the task of SAMMAKKO members is to bring students’ experiences and views into decision-making.

SAMMAKKO also monitors the interests of students on individual courses and campuses. You can always contact the student union if you suspect that everything is not going as well as it should or there are ambiguities in completing the courses. SAMMAKKO members advise and help in all unclear situations.

Consultation of students

The student’s voice will be heard through the Board of Representatives – the highest decision-making power of the Student Union – and the Board of the Student Union elected by the Council of Representatives. Representatives are elected to these SAMMAKKO’s decision-making bodies by election every autumn. Read more about SAMMAKKO’s decision-making here.

In order for SAMMAKKO to best promote the status and well-being of students at the university, the student union collects feedback and produces surveys for students annually. Your own development idea or feedback can always be submitted to SAMMAKKO directly or through a familiar member of the Representative Council.

Advocacy nationwide

SAMMAKKO is a member of the Finnish Student Union SAMOK ry and the Finnish Student Sports Federation OLL. Through these nationwide student associations, SAMMAKKO represents students from Satakunta nationwide and also internationally!

What is SAMOK? The Association of Finnish Student Unions SAMOK ry is the head organization of all Finnish student unions. SAMOK monitors the interests of polytechnic students nationwide, both in terms of the quality of higher education, the well-being of students and, for example, livelihoods. Read more about SAMOK here.

What is OLL? The Finnish Student Sports Federation is a nationwide student and university sports advocacy and service organization that represents all Finnish university students. Through OLL, for example, we get accident insurance for our sports events! Read more about OLL here.