The management of student organisations : the survival of these voluntary organisations in a professional environment

Abstract

My dissertation focuses on the management of Student Organisations at the University Of Malta. During the past four years at University, I have played a very active role in student organisations. During the first two years I was very active in AIESEC - a student organisation that seeks to give students the opportunity to work abroad by exchanging students all around the world. During my two years as an AIESEC member, I was President of a committee that organised a Seminar about Information Technology, a seminar that was attended by a very wide selection of well-known personalities in Malta. I also sat on a committee, which organised a seven-day international seminar - European Exchange Programmes (EXPRO) where I was responsible for External Relations. In my third year I was elected Treasurer of Kunsill Studenti Universitarji which is the oldest, largest and most important organisation on Campus. I am currently the organisation's President. KSU is the only student representative body on Campus and seeks to represent all 10,000 students on Campus, Institute of Health Care, Medical School and Junior College. These organisations are two of a much larger number that operate on Campus. I have always been fascinated about the way that these organisations have survived through different times. The oldest organisation - KSU has survived for 100 years now meaning that's its management board or as we call it executive committee changed at least 100 times, the same goes for AIESEC which is over 50 years old and many other organisations on Campus. Unfortunately however there seems to be a very serious underlying problem. Over the past years more than ten organisations have been considered as being defunct. One has to question the reasons why many organisations are 'dying' and what needs to be done to try to save such organisations. I have therefore decided to embark on this dissertation to analyse the reasons for their survival, how they have managed to keep going strong, although they possess such limited resources such as lack of funds (all organisations depend on the sponsors they are able to gain during the year and the petty income generated from activities such as parties and seminars), lack of Human resources (all organisations are managed by students who are studying at the University, no student is paid for the work carried out within the organisation), and lack of management skills. I will also be analysing the present situation - what type of management concepts do these organisations adopt, and finally the future. Will these organisations that have survived for such a long time have to make an effort to survive in the next few years. Considering that the number of organisation that are dying is rapidly on the increase I will therefore give great emphasis to what needs to be done so as to be able to remain effective. With all the changes that society is experiencing especially fiercer competition and the emergence of very efficient and effective firms professionally managed, can these organisations afford to keep operating in the way that they have been operating so far? Are they changing their style of management? Will they have to change their style of operating in the next few years? These are the questions that I shall seek to answer in this dissertation. I hope that student organisations will take this study seriously and consider the results and recommendations that are written in the rest of the pages of this document. I augur that this dissertation shall serve its purpose.