Over 100 students, university deans, ministry officials, and student council’s leaders gathered in Bălți for Moldova’s first-ever National Forum of Student Self-Governance Structures, held as part of the Ministry of Education and Research’s Education Week. The event took place at “Alecu Russo” State University in the Moldova’s Youth Capital for 2026.

The Forum brought together representatives of student self-governance bodies from across the country alongside officials from the Ministry of Education and Research, the National Youth Agency, the Council of Europe Office in Chișinău with the shared objective of strengthening youth participation and student representation in higher education institutions.

Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chișinău, Falk Lange, underlined organisation’s decades-long experience in co-management, and noted that “Meaningful participation means young people are involved in setting the agenda, in decision-making, in implementation, and in evaluation, involved continuously, as equal partners. “What was built in schools can be built in universities too: through transparent decision-making processes, formal student representation in governance bodies, and a culture of shared accountability between students and administration.”, Lange added.

The forum focused on good practices for involving young people in decision-making processes, notably the Council of Europe's co-management as an inspiring model of youth engagement, the role of youth organisations and representative structures in advocacy, as well as workshops dedicated to developing student self-governance structures.

The programme included a “Carousel of Ideas” workshop in which participants rotated through five thematic stations: student representation, youth rights advocacy, decision-making participation, co-management, and decision-making transparency, before a plenary session on the new SAS Functioning Regulations and available funding opportunities.

The event was organised within the project "Youth for Democracy and Human Rights in the Republic of Moldova," part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova 2025-2028, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research and the National Youth Agency.