All associations are NGOs that also are LUST-approved, meaning that the associations should be run democratically, consist of mainly students, and therefore these associations get certain benefits and can operate at LiU. However there are a few types of associations and here we present them:
Student unions
a student union is a NGO that does work that benefits the students’ interest towards the university. They coordinate the education monitoring, they monitor the students’ work environment and work with the student social life. The student unions are tasked with this work by the university, and in return get a grant. There are three student unions at Linköping University: LinTek (faculty of science and engineering), Consesus (faculty of health sciences and medicine) and StuFF (educational sciences and faculty of arts and sciences).
Sections
a section is an NGO tied to a program at LiU. The task of the sections are similar to that of the unions, but they also bring a lot into the student social life, especially for the students at their program. Together with the unions they work with issues related to the education, the work environment and student social life. They receive grants from the unions for this collaboration.
Student associations
They are not tied to any faculty or program and they can have members of any faculty or program. The student associations usually operate within an area of interest. They do activities and events for their members, and sometimes non-members too. They are financed through membership fees.