Students are the first to protest when a society starts to move in the wrong direction.  Because of this, students and academics are often monitored, persecuted, imprisoned, or they simply dissapear.

In all major social upheavals of modern times, students have played a vital role.
On campuses, the existing paradigms are challenged, opinions are tested against each other and new ideas are hatched. Insight and knowledge combined with youthful courage and the will to create change, make students a power with enormous potential. The difficult questions are often first asked by the students. In this way, even the most authoritarian regimes and dictators can be challenged.
This is a fact that authoritarian governments are fully aware of. Therefore, students are also a particularly vulnerable group. Through surveillance, politically motivated expulsion, and wrongful arrests, the students who ask the wrong questions are silenced. Examples are made of these students to terrorize and discourage others who might decide to follow the same path.
The world is changing. Not only in the Middle East and North Africa, but in many other countries such as Swaziland, Iran, Colombia and many more, students are working for a more just society. SAIH will celebrate these student heroes, and lobby Norwegian education institutions to speak out when such abuse is taking place, and provide help for these students.

Find out more about Student Heroes here!