Student power is used as an umbrella term to refer to all the activities that students carry out collectively to resist or bring about change in higher education (HE) both at the institutional and systemic level. Scholarly literature distinguishes two types or sets of action that students adopt to influence HE decisions: (1) the logic of representation and (2) that of activism. While representation refers to the set of activities that students carry out within and through the institutional bodies (such as lobbying and issue advocacy), activism refers to the set of activities that students put forward outside or against such bodies (such as protest).

Representative activities are generally carried out by formalized organizations of students (such as unions and governments), which take part in student ...