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The Student Union of the University of Turku, TYY, is is one of the oldest student unions in Finland

Founded in 1922

The role of TYY is to represent its members, to advance the position of students in society and provide them with services ranging from consultations with lawyers to parties and sports opportunities.

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The membership of a student union is by law compulsory for all Finnish undergraduate students

It is possible to end the membership, but it also means that you can't continue studying.

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Health care - FSHS at your service

Student card

Starting Package Storage (exchange students)

Housing

Counselling services

Student cafeterias

Rentals

Guides

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Turku Ylioppilaslehti reported that two law students from the University of Turku want to resign from TYY. A complaint has been made to the Administrative Court of Turku.
In a complaint to the court, students demand a separation from the Student Union of the University of Turku without losing their right to study at the University of Turku. They also demanded back the membership fee for the current academic year.

Since joining the Student Union and paying the membership fee is compulsory for university students, in the opinion of critics it violates the constitution that the citizen has the freedom to belong or not to the associations.Unlike university students, admission to polytechnic students is voluntary.

In October 2019, the Constitutional Committee suggested that the State Council should consider launching a study on whether there is no longer any justification for the membership of the Student Union for freedom of association.
(Turun Sanomat, 2019)

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Second claim: Automatic membership doesn’t take place in universities of applied sciences and this puts degree students to an unequal position

Universities of applied sciences are an exception in this respect. Instead of narrowing down the automatic membership in the name of equality, maybe we should focus on expanding this function also to universities of applied sciences.

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First claim: Automatic membership breaks the law on freedom of association

Based on the freedom of association written on our constitution, the law about this freedom relates to associations.  Students’ union is not an association but a public corporation and therefore a subject to public law. The difference between associations and public corporations is legally quite a significant one. Students’ union implements its public duties and responsibilities as part of an autonomous University determined in the Finnish law.

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Third claim: Students’ unions have taken role as party-political actors, giving statements to multitude of matters that have not been concerning the representation of studying

Students’ union is a public corporation and they should not present any party’s case. On the other hand, it is sometimes very difficult to determine what issues concern primarily the students or studying, since they don’t live separate from the surrounding society. E.g. climate change has been seen as a matter that is so closely connected to students that the union can express its views on it.

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1. What is your stand on this issue - should the membership remain compulsory or change to voluntary?

2. What do you think would happen if they changed the membership to voluntary? Would TYY be able to function?

3. If possible, would you personally resign from TYY?

4. Should TYY focus more on representation of students and less about producing services?