Drawing on the dataset from global comparative project Student Impact on Higher Education Globally, including NAT-SIHEG (SIHEG 2021) survey from 75 countries and LOC-SIHEG (SIHEG 2021) survey data from 25 countries, this paper analyses and compares the practices in student representation in higher education governance on national and local levels (Klemenčič 2012, 2014, 2020a, e), as well as within international organizations in the regional and global higher education polities (Klemenčič and Palomares 2017). The focus of the paper is thus on student political agency through formal representation rather than activism which is another facet of student politics (Klemenčič and Park 2018; Klemenčič 2020b) or service and leadership roles students have on campus (Klemenčič 2020c). The investigation is embedded in the Klemenčič’s theory of student agency in higher education which submits that students have varying capabilities to shape the social structures of academic and social life in higher education (Klemenčič 2020d). The paper also discusses the contextual circumstances and organizational capabilities of student representative associations to perform representative function. It ends with a discussion on involving student representatives in research – not as subjects but as researchers - as a way for capacity building of representative student associations and student representatives.

KLEMENČIČ, M. Student governments. In Shin, J. C., Teixeira, P. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions (Springer, 2020a) https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_614-1#howtocite KLEMENČIČ, M. Student employees in higher education. In Shin, J. C., Teixeira, P. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions (Springer, 2020c) https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_615-1 KLEMENČIČ, M. Student politics. In Shin, J. C., Teixeira, P. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions (Springer, 2020b) https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_618-2 KLEMENČIČ, M. Student activism and student organizations. In Miriam E. David and Marilyn J. Amey (eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education, 5v. (SAGE, 2020d) https://us-sagepub-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/en-us/nam/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-higher-education/book245423 KLEMENČIČ, M. Higher education institution governing boards: student board members. In Miriam E. David and Marilyn J. Amey (eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education, 5v. (SAGE, 2020e) https://us-sagepub-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/en-us/nam/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-higher-education/book245423 KLEMENČIČ, M. and Bo Yun Park (2018) Student Politics: Between Representation and Activism. In Handbook on the Politics of Higher Education, edited by Hamish Coates, Brendan Cantwell and Roger King (Edward Edgar Publishing), Chapter 26, pp. 468-686.https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781786435019/9781786435019.00037.xml Klemenčič, M. and F. M. Galán Palomares (2017) Transnational student associations in the European multilevel governance of higher education policies. European Educational Research Journal 17(3) 2018: 365-384.