University of Helsinki Greens’ Election Program
Influential and bold HYY
HYY as a counterforce to the right-wing government
HYY must stand up to current government policies and stand firmly on the side of equality, anti-racism and anti-ableism.
Moving students away from general housing allowance must be reversed and remaining study grant months must not be a condition for receiving housing allowance.
The loan bias of the financial aid to students should be reduced by increasing the share of the study grant.
The total amount of student grants must be maintained at least at the level before the cuts.
The meal allowance for university students must be linked to the general cost index, and the Kela allowance for student meals must be automatically increased.
Regional student loan subsidies should be opposed because they increase inequalities between students and regions.
In the long term, a basic income that is sufficient to live on is the best solution to secure income for students also.
The livelihoods of international students and equal access to health and mental health services must be ensured.
At least 700 new student dwellings per year should be built in Helsinki, close to campuses and good public transport connections.
The student discount on HSL tickets should be restored to 50 %. It should be possible to buy a ticket on a physical travel card in addition to an app and ideally the same ticket should be available in both formats. It should also be possible to buy a ticket for more than one month at a time. The student discount should also apply to single tickets and, in the case of single tickets, to students living outside the HSL area.
Requirements for a permanent residence in the Helsinki Metropolitan area for getting discounted seasonal HSL tickets should be removed for international students. The residence processes for international students may take months and during that time international students have to buy regular tickets.
We call for more support for YTHS from the government, as it is the primary actor in tackling issues such as the mental health crisis among students. We also call for more training for YTHS staff on minority identities and their intersections, precisely to promote better mental health work.
The number of student psychologists should be increased so that appointments can be made within two weeks. In addition, low-threshold multilingual counselling needs to be increased.
HYY must take a stand
HYY should participate actively in demonstrations, boycotts and campaigns concerning issues such as human rights and the environment.
In Europe, the war in Ukraine is raging, and around the world, in addition to the Palestinian genocide, there are ugly violations of human rights in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar. We students are being trained to be the actors of the future and to fight for human rights, so we want to see the same from HYY.
HYY must take a stand and be involved in promoting the conditions for humanitarian aid and peace. HYY should demand that the Finnish government recognises the Palestinian state and votes in favour of a lasting ceasefire.
The university should stop academic cooperation and not renew exchange agreements with Israeli universities. Israeli universities participate in the maintenance of the apartheid system and the development of the Israeli army.
Ylva, the University and HYY should pay particular attention in all their procurement activities to ensure that the goods and services procured, or their intermediate products, do not originate from illegal Israeli settlements or other circumstances where there is reason to suspect unethical working conditions or diversion of funds to military activities.
HYY and the university
The student union membership fee should be lowered and the aim should be to abolish it completely when the economic situation improves.
We call for better possibilities to change one's gender in the Sisu service used by the university, regardless of the social security number. The options "other" and "don't want to tell" must be included in the system. In addition, students must be able to decide for themselves whether their gender or other information should be visible to the university administration.
The university and HYY websites, systems and applications must be accessible to ensure that all students have as equal access as possible. This means, for example, screen reader compatible websites and Instagram posts that always include an alternative caption. In addition, the use of induction loops should be ensured in all university premises.
The university should pay more attention to break-time equipment, for example in the Kaisa library, so that students can take a break from their studies with a little exercise or stretching.
All individual bathrooms should be made gender-neutral without delay and large bathrooms should be made gender-neutral at the latest as these bathrooms are renovated or new bathrooms are built.
Menstrual products should be available in all bathrooms to prevent period poverty. Possibility to provide menstrual cups and other reusable menstrual products should also be considered.
HYY's communication should continue to be trilingual and sufficient resources should be allocated to implement effective trilingualism in HYY's activities, events and institutions such as the Representative Council.
Sustainability
We call for good incentives to further increase the consumption of vegan food. With vegan food already accounting for close to half of sales, Unicafes should offer at least two vegan options per day to make vegan food the most attractive option more often.
Unicafes must make a fair and sustainable transition to a fully plant-based, vegan restaurant business by 2028.
Two fully plant-based Unicafes should be established on the Central Campus by the end of 2025. By the end of 2026, every campus should have at least one fully plant-based Unicafe.
Unicafe should stop serving cow's milk as a beverage by the end of 2025.
Currently 45% of Unicafe lunches are plant-based. From 2025 onwards, the share of plant-based lunches must increase to 15%, so that the restaurant business is 100% plant-based by 2028.
The price of plant-based meals should be reduced, encouraging customers to choose a plant-based alternative.
Unicafe should focus all product development on plant-based dishes.
Ylva should lead the way in sustainability in its construction projects. Ylva should take environmental impacts into account in all decisions on construction methods and materials and be prepared to experiment with new technologies. Ylva should also set an example by reporting emissions from construction and property maintenance in a truthful manner. Funding for development cooperation should be restored to at least 0.7% of the budget as soon as possible. During this period, the Development Committee must be kept active and concrete opportunities must be found for its members to do effective work.
Organisations and HYY employees should be trained more on topics related to environmental sustainability.
We aim for a car-free central campus, where people would move by walking, cycling or even skateboarding. However, emergency vehicles and essential transport vehicles should have access to the campus.
The university must prioritise the education and research needed to tackle the climate crisis. The abolition of a professorship in environmental policy, which caused a stir last summer, is an example of cuts that will have a direct negative impact on the diversity of future talent. Expertise is needed to prevent the climate crisis.
Public transport services in the evenings and at weekends should be developed. In particular, metro services should be extended to 24 hours a day.
Cycling facilities should be developed and cycle routes near and between campuses should be safe and interconnected as seamlessly as possible.
Winter maintenance of cycle routes should be improved and the urban cycling season should be made year-round, as there are also plenty of cyclists between November and March and the weather is often well suited to cycling during most of this period.
Korkeasaari zoo and the Sea Life aquarium should not be endorsed and free entrance for Viikki students should not be provided. Conservation efforts should not require having animals in cages for exposition. The Sea Life company has been extremely criticized in the past for the treatment of their animals in other zoos around the globe and should not be trusted or endorsed.
Organisations
HYY needs to restore grants to organisations to pre-cuts levels as soon as possible. Depending on the nature of the organisation, funding its activities through other means is often challenging and time-consuming and HYY's grants are a vital source of income for many organisations operating within HYY.
HYY must support the resilience of organisational actors and provide training for organisational actors to promote sustainable and fatigue-preventive practices in organisations.
Student magazines are an important part of student culture and their preservation should be enabled.
The Student Union should continue to provide facilities for organisations and ensure that they are suitable and accessible.
HYY must make itself, its advocacy and activities known to its members through better communication. Membership democracy must be supported by making membership initiatives known.
Education policy
HYY should speak up for comprehensive education. The number of humanities disciplines and their student amounts should not be reduced.
We call for a ban on unpaid internships. The current economic situation of students demands that internships be paid a competitive wage.
Students must be provided with an adequate income and support for exchange studies. The number of long-term student exchanges (at least 3 months) for university students has fallen by 35% in ten years.
Student mobility to other Nordic universities should be improved and developed. The priority in the development work should be to reduce bureaucracy for students.
We call for a permanent right to study in Finland for international students.
Tuition fees for international students should be removed. The university should at least increase the amount allocated for scholarships. Scholarships should also allow for more flexibility, since they only cover 2 years of master’s studies at maximum.
Splitting the tuition fee payments at least over 8-10 payments should be possible. Currently, the fees for the first year of studies needs to be paid before the study period starts, and only starting on the second year the payment can be splitted in 2, which is not nearly enough taking into account that tuition fees can go as high as 18.000 euros per year.