What is advocacy and what do METKA’s advocacy people even do?
Advocacy tends to be pretty invisible if you don’t need it yourself. But behind the scenes, METKA’s advocacy team is dealing with student contacts AKA cases throughout the year. The handling of cases is based on trust and therefore it is not possible to communicate them externally.
What we can reveal, however, is that during the last year we dealt with 87 cases. So far this year, we have dealt with 18 cases. These are contacts with METKA by individual students or sometimes entire groups. We deal with cases according to the students’ wishes. Sometimes it is enough to give tips and direct the student to the right person, sometimes we deal with the contact e.g. with the teacher of the course, while the student remains anonymous. Often, cases are resolved to the satisfaction of all parties, but sometimes there’s nothing that can be done, if no instructions are neglected but it’s rather a teacher’s pedagogical solution that does not suit everyone, as every people learn in a different way.
In addition to the cases, we do a lot of invisible work in the form of working groups, monitoring politics related to studies and working with student representatives. METKA is involved in many groups within Metropolia, but also in regional or national groups to make the student voice heard. The advocacy team also meets regularly with the school directors. These meetings are used to discuss current issues in the study fields and to highlight challenges that METKA has become aware of.
Ultimately, the purpose of advocacy is to improve the lives of students and make the advocacy redundant.
Is there anything else you would like to ask about the role of advocacy? Or are you wondering about something that came up in your studies and you’re not sure how to proceed? Drop us a question in Instagram stories and METKA’s advocacy team will answer them today (March 28th 2024)!
This post is also available in Suomi.