This year’s most important questions for the student unions

For 2017 medical student Max Kynning will be the chair of the Medical Students' Union (MF) and dental student Stephanie Ammerman chair of the Dental Students' Association (OF). These are the questions that they intend to focus on in their new roles.

Stephanie Ammerman emphasises sustainable development, counteracting cheating and getting exchange students involved in student life at the university. In sustainable development she includes both sorting waste, “simple things really”, and well-being, “it’s important that our students feel good”.

The reason cheating is an issue, she says, is that it’s too easy for students to cheat on their programmes.

“We’ve found that students take along cheat-sheets or their phone to their exams, so we need to have more invigilators. Students might also take someone else’s work and hand it in as their own,” Stephanie Ammerman says.

The association will be working on this during the year, both in order to see how common it is and to influence the situation and find ways to stop people from cheating.

With her third main issue, Stephanie Ammerman wants to get Swedish students to mix with exchange students and vice versa.

“In the association we’ve seen that students in the two groups mostly hang out separately. We want to create a ‘buddy system’ and start more activities for our exchange students.”

Greater involvement in the union important for MF

Max Kynning emphasises getting students involved in MF. Another major question is the Nobel Night Cap event, the after-party that follows the Nobel Banquet in the City Hall hosted by MF this year, and also collecting money to be able to renovate the union building, due to start some time in 2018.

Vacant posts in MF are also being filled, Max Kynning tells us.

“It’s fun to be a member of MF and it’s important to have student representatives in as many parts of the university as possible,” he goes on.

Their roles might be new to both Max Kynning and Stephanie Ammerman. But they have both been involved in their unions’ work previously during their time at KI. Stephanie Ammerman says that five years at high school and college in the USA have meant that it’s natural for her.

“Over there, being involved goes without saying and I brought that with me.”

Others pushed her to stand for election as OF chair.

“When I come to the university and see all the students and teachers, that doesn’t give me a picture of a hard life. Studies are not only a matter of studying and worrying about exams; they’re fun too.”

Max Kynning is of a similar opinion. He has spent the beginning of the spring term visiting student hangouts to introduce himself and talk about MF.

“And it’s a myth that there’s no student life in Stockholm. The union is a stable point right at the heart of it,” he says.

Text: Madeleine Svärd Huss