At UTC-Com­pieg­ne, the sit­u­a­tion is the same as that observed across the stu­dent com­mu­ni­ty in France: involve­ment suf­fers from a lack of appeal. Stu­dent involve­ment needs a new lease of life, a boost where inno­va­tion, sol­i­dar­i­ty, inter­cul­tur­al­i­ty, agili­ty and all the oth­er val­ues of this sec­tor, also part, as we say of, UTC’s DNA, sym­bol­ise the breed­ing ground for strong pro­fes­sion­al inte­gra­tion. The ques­tion­naire devel­oped last spring by the UTC Stu­dent Union (BDE) as part of a study on this issue aims to bet­ter under­stand the bar­ri­ers and moti­va­tions for vol­un­teer­ing in order to reflect on the issue and pro­pose solutions.

UTC-Com­pieg­ne has 120 active stu­dent soci­eties divid­ed into four clus­ters: Arts and Events (PAE), Sol­i­dar­i­ty and Cit­i­zen­ship (PSEC), Tech­nol­o­gy and Entre­pre­neur­ship (PTE) and Cam­pus Life (PVDC). At the last cen­sus, they had less than 2 500 mem­bers, com­pared to around 2 700 in pre­vi­ous years. Stu­dent ‘dis­en­gage­ment’ is evi­dent and has led some asso­ci­a­tions to end their activities.

‘We need to rethink oth­er ways of work­ing to moti­vate com­rades’ engage­ment,’ says Alan­na Acos­ta Chilel­li, a stu­dent in Human­i­ties and Tech­nol­o­gy and head of part­ner­ships at the UTC Stu­dent Office (BDE). Last spring, this cen­tral asso­ci­a­tion for stu­dent life at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Com­pieg­ne launched an online ques­tion­naire to gain an overview of the dif­fi­cul­ties, obsta­cles, needs and expec­ta­tions. Ensur­ing the con­ti­nu­ity of asso­ci­a­tion activ­i­ties is one of the chal­lenges to be addressed, as these activ­i­ties enable gen­uine ful­fil­ment and the devel­op­ment of many human, social and pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­ties. Some 550 stu­dents, vol­un­teers and staff at UTC respond­ed to the questionnaire.

Areas for improvement

‘Stu­dent soci­ety offi­cers are re-elect­ed every six months and the pres­i­dent approx­i­mate­ly every year,’ reports Alan­na Acos­ta Chilel­li. “This can com­pli­cate oper­a­tions, as infor­ma­tion can be lost and cer­tain issues remain unre­solved. We also need to break down prej­u­dices about asso­ci­a­tion work, the work­load and respon­si­bil­i­ties. Admin­is­tra­tive tasks, which are invis­i­ble and unre­ward­ing, strug­gle to attract peo­ple.” Dis­cus­sions are also under­way about the for­mat of the annu­al intake “inte­gra­tion day” and the pre­sen­ta­tion of UTC’s asso­ci­a­tions in order to give them greater vis­i­bil­i­ty. The large num­ber of asso­ci­a­tions is one of the points raised in our dis­cus­sions with stu­dents, espe­cial­ly as actions and mis­sions could be merged and syn­er­gised to a greater extent. There are there­fore many areas for improve­ment in order to encour­age stu­dents to get involved and make the stu­dent asso­ci­a­tion world suf­fi­cient­ly attrac­tive. ‘Lack of time or recog­ni­tion, fatigue and men­tal over­load are oth­er issues that have been raised.’ How­ev­er, stu­dents are aware that involve­ment in asso­ci­a­tions helps them to acquire sig­nif­i­cant pro­fes­sion­al skills. This is one of its strengths: ‘Help­ing to car­ry out a project, co-con­struct­ing it and learn­ing allows you to adapt, which is pre­cise­ly the role of an engineer.’

Innovation as a solution

The elite asso­ci­a­tion pro­gramme nev­er­the­less aims to recog­nise com­mit­ment, cer­ti­fy and pro­mote the impor­tant respon­si­bil­i­ties tak­en on with­in asso­ci­a­tions, such as sports, musi­cal and entre­pre­neur­ial activ­i­ties.‘Bal­anc­ing asso­ci­a­tion activ­i­ties with the cur­ricu­lum can prove com­pli­cat­ed,’ notes the vol­un­teer. For the past two years, this spe­cif­ic pro­gramme has offered a tai­lored cur­ricu­lum. Around twen­ty stu­dents are com­mit­ted to it on a long-term basis. “At the Stu­dent Union’s infor­ma­tion ser­vice, we are already work­ing on changes to attract stu­dents. The ques­tion­naire we have devel­oped pro­vides a frame­work for find­ing solu­tions, for try­ing to inno­vate and imple­ment new ways of revi­tal­is­ing the asso­ci­a­tion. But how far should we go in restruc­tur­ing?” asks Alan­na Acos­ta Chilel­li, for whom com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment and asso­ci­a­tions are a source of ‘life after class’. The BDE’s next objec­tives are to imple­ment con­crete changes in order to reor­gan­ise and find solu­tions to the issues raised in order ‘to attract those who do not par­tic­i­pate in UTC’s com­mu­ni­ty life, who are nei­ther con­sumers nor actors’.

A rich student society life!

At the heart of stu­dent life, four stu­dent-run asso­ci­a­tions bring the cam­pus to life through­out the year: the arts and events asso­ci­a­tion hub stim­u­lates cre­ativ­i­ty through dance, choir, musi­cal the­atre and the organ­i­sa­tion of fes­tive events; the sol­i­dar­i­ty and cit­i­zen­ship hub is com­mit­ted to social and envi­ron­men­tal caus­es, mobil­is­ing stu­dents around the major issues of our time; the tech­nol­o­gy and entre­pre­neur­ship hub pro­motes inno­va­tion and exchange, notably through the stu­dent-busi­ness forum, TEDx con­fer­ences and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment or junior enter­prise projects; The cam­pus life hub con­tributes to every­day con­vivi­al­i­ty by offer­ing activ­i­ties that strength­en com­mu­ni­ty ties and dynamics.

IL