About NTK

The Umeå Student Union of Science and Technology, NTK, is the student union for everyone studying engineering, science, architecture or design at the faculty of science and technology at Umeå University.

NTK is one of three student unions at Umeå University, the two others being Umeå Medical and Health Sciences Student Union and Umeå Student Union. NTK represents about 4000 students who mainly study at the faculty of science and technology at Umeå University. NTK’s function is to, amongst other things, monitor the students’ interests and rights as well as improve their contact with the corporate world. Each year NTK arranges Umeå University’s largest career day Uniaden together with HHUS, UMSYS and PLUM. Our ambition is that the education and study time of the students should exceed everyone’s expectations.

You can find us at our office at Johan Bures väg 11, Universumhuset. If you have any questions or otherwise just want to chat you are always welcome to come by, or you can get in touch with us here.

NTK's organization

The unions branches

A member of the Student Union is also a member of one of the branches. NTK has eight sections, they are:

The CS section
The Design section
The F section
The I section
InSekt (The engineer section)
The MEGA section
The Sigma section
PhD – Postgraduate section

A list of all sections (and which you belong to) can be found here.

The Student Union Council

NTK’s operations is governed by the Student Union Council which consists of 23 members representing the sections. How many representatives each section has depends on the size of their section. Each section is guaranteed at least one representative. The Student Union Council is the highest decision-making body of the student union.

Student union board

The Student Union Board carries out the decisions made by the Student Union Council and take care of the student union’s daily work. The student union board consists of six board members: chairman of the Student Union Council, vice chairman of the Student Union Council, head of corporate relations, head of social matters, head of educational matters and student representative.

What is a student union?

Organization

In Sweden, at most universities, being a member of the student union isn’t obligatory, its optional. The student unions are responsible for representing the students in the evaluation of the education and decision-making within the university.

The unions are usually governed by a general assembly of elected representatives. The elected representatives are directly chosen by the members, and the board members of the student union board are chosen by the elected representatives. The board members are usually compensated for their work with a salary. The larger and/or economically stronger unions usually have proper employees that take care of administration or finances.

Operation

Student unions monitor and participate in the planning of education given at the university. It is usually divided into educational matters (quality of education, orientation, teaching practice, content, coordination) and social matters (housing, health services, library and computer resources, working environment).

Other common areas within student unions are corporate relations, internationalization, equality and diversity. A lot of work is put into arranging social functions for the students, often pub and party events but also sport activities and student receptions for new students. Before the universities were made responsible for student health services a lot of student unions had this responsibility. At some places the student unions still take care of student health services.

NTK works for you to:

have a good education
have a good university experience
meet the demands of the labour market

To achieve this, NTK works with:

arranging a reception to give your studies in Umeå a good start
arranging student-corporate meetings, where you can meet corporations during your studies
overseeing the university’s work with education quality

You can help NTK by:

taking part in course evaluations and giving constructive criticism to your teachers and to the Student Union
working as a volunteer at the Student Union House Origo
making an impact on your studies as a Student Union Official