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Student Bill of Rights


A Student Bill of Rights or Charter of Student Rights and Freedoms is a document adopted by a student group, university or college or government at a local, state or national level. It outlines a population's basic beliefs regarding student rights. These statements of belief are often the foundation for future legislative efforts or collaborative efforts to create joint statements between organizations. The European Student Union, for example, uses their Student Rights Charter when lobbying for student rights in the European Union Higher Education Area as a document representing the student will. The historic National Student Association in the United States used their Student Bill of Rights to help create dialogue between the American Association of University Professors and to initiate the creation of a joint statement on student rights. This collaborative effort gave credence to the demands of students and helped normalize student rights on campuses across North America. While the United States Student Association does not have a student bill of rights of its own, it upholds the 1947 student bill of rights put forth by the National Student Association.

These documents tend to do several things. They can be statements of belief, policy or law. When put forth by a student organization or third party organization they tend to be statements of belief because these organizations do not often have the ability to enforce their beliefs. Even though they are not legally binding they are important because they help policy and law makers understand what students expect and believe to be ethical treatment. At the institutional level they tend to be policy statements. These are legally binding as a promise from the institution to the students who attend and have been found in court to be considered to be part of the educational contract. At the state or federal level student rights documents are legal and binding upon either the state or the country.

At any level these documents provide students with an understanding of their civil or legal rights which are already contained in legislation. These include rights pertinent to all citizens and also to students in the educational setting and provide procedural rights to inform students how institutions should be respecting their legal rights. When used as a statement of belief, however, they often include rights an organization feels students should have and the procedural rights institutions must follow to ensure these rights are fulfilled. There are currently a number of student petitions calling for the creation of national student bills in various countries. While there have been some attempts to create subject specific student bills in the United States, like the Academic Bill of Rights, these have not been successful due primarily for demand for a document which is wider in scope and deals with students constitutional, civil, contractual and consumer rights.


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