Opening the black box of student government in authoritarian contexts

Andrea Kronstad Felde's article Opening the black box of student government in authoritarian contexts: Institutional work and intra organisational conflicts in the Students’ Guild at Makerere University, Uganda, published in Higher Education in April 2024, has been noticed and commented by Wachira Kigotho in University World News.

Student governments are significant players in the governance of higher education and broader political processes, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of the research has focused on their relationships with higher education authorities and political parties, often without examining their internal dynamics. To understand why student leaders act and position themselves externally as they do, it’s necessary to analyze the internal dynamics of student governments. Felde's case study of the Students’ Guild at Makerere University fills this knowledge gap. The study finds that the student government is far more conflictual and heterogeneous than previous literature suggests. Instead of comprising representatives who act in unison, it is characterized by intra-organizational conflicts due to competing institutional work. These conflicts reflect the representatives’ multiple, diverse, and divergent interests and institutional goals.