Empower Youth to Transform Education & Systems

1. Strengthening the capacity of our global community

Over the past months, oikos International has continued strengthening the capacity of its global chapter network, creating opportunities for students to learn from one another, develop their leadership skills, and turn ideas into meaningful action.

A central element of this work has been the continuation of our monthly Chapter Accelerator Sessions, providing chapter leaders with practical knowledge, tools, and peer-learning opportunities. The sessions covered four key topics:

• Fck Up Space: How Best Stories Are Born and How Fck Ups Ignite Change – creating space for learning from failures and embracing experimentation.

• Mobilising People: Recruitment, Community Building & How to Organize – strengthening chapters' ability to attract, engage, and organise members.

• Creating Impact: Strategize, Find Opportunities and Build Action Plans – translating ambitions into strategic priorities and concrete actions.

• Project Cycles: How to Design Impact Projects & Assess Them – developing the skills to design, implement, and evaluate impactful initiatives.

Alongside the online sessions, we continued our Chapter Whisper Visits, meeting chapter members in person in Copenhagen and Berlin. These visits provide an opportunity to understand the realities of individual chapters, strengthen relationships, identify challenges, and explore opportunities for collaboration.

2. Bringing student voices into higher education transformation

Together with the Copernicus Alliance, we participated in the Higher Education Summit, bringing together four oikos chapter presidents and an oikos International co-president.

The student representatives facilitated a workshop placing student voices at the centre of discussions about the future of higher education. This created an opportunity for students to contribute their perspectives, experiences, and ideas directly to conversations about transforming education.

This engagement also demonstrated the growing role of oikos chapters as active contributors to wider higher education networks and transformation processes.

3. Creating opportunities for collective action

We continued developing new ways for chapters and individual members to collaborate beyond their local initiatives.

Two new thematic working groups, oikos Squads, were initiated:

• oikos Squad for Beyond GDP: bringing together members interested in exploring economic models and approaches that move beyond traditional measures of economic growth.

• oikos Squad for Consulting: creating opportunities for members to develop sustainability consulting capabilities and explore how these can support organisations and businesses.

These initiatives create spaces for members to connect around shared interests, exchange knowledge, and develop ideas into collaborative projects.

4. Supporting local chapters to translate ambition into action

One of the most encouraging developments has been seeing how individual chapters are translating their engagement with oikos International into new structures, initiatives, and strategic directions.

Some examples include:

• oikos Prague: Andrea initiated an internship collaboration between oikos Prague and oikos International, aimed at establishing a sustainability consulting team within the chapter. This creates an opportunity to strengthen the chapter's operational capacity while developing practical consulting experience and strategic partnerships.

• oikos St. Gallen: Inspired by the need to become more innovative and agile, the chapter initiated the establishment of a dedicated Change Department, focused on exploring new ways of developing the organisation and its activities.

• oikos Jamshedpur: is planning to host the Asian oikos gathering at the Social Entrepreneurship Conclave, helping reconnect members and strengthen regional collaboration.

• oikos Graz: almost going dormant, the chapter experienced a renewed sense of energy, with new members and more mission-aligned ideas emerging. Engagement with the oikos Squad for Beyond GDP helped inspire new perspectives on the chapter's activities and direction.

• oikos Lisbon: Introduced a Community Building Department, shifting the focus from traditional HR structures towards actively nurturing relationships, engagement, and a sense of belonging.

• oikos Brussels: facing a recruitment challenge, oikos Brussels need to rethink their approach. Starting with a sustainability-focused company visit and subsequently building momentum around member recruitment.

• oikos Warsaw: Following a member's participation in the Higher Education Summit, the chapter found renewed energy and inspiration to engage more actively in transforming business education.

These examples illustrate how strengthening the global network can translate into tangible developments at the local level. Rather than simply replicating activities across chapters, members are adapting ideas and opportunities to their own contexts and needs.

5. Investing in democratic leadership and organisational continuity

The beginning of a new academic year brought significant transitions across our chapter network. New student cohorts, graduating members, and changing leadership teams created a period of renewed coordination, relationship-building, and strategic planning.

Throughout this transition, oikos International supported chapters through strategy calls, individual conversations, and collaborative action planning, helping outgoing and incoming leaders maintain continuity while creating space for new ideas and directions.

At the international level, we also held our Legislative Meeting, during which the community democratically elected the new co-president and Board for 2027.

This process demonstrated the democratic nature of the oikos network and the commitment of our chapters to actively participate in shaping the future of the organisation.

6. Looking ahead

As we move towards the end of 2026, our focus remains on ensuring that the energy and initiatives emerging across the network develop into lasting organisational capacity.

We will continue strengthening chapter leadership, supporting local initiatives, expanding opportunities for collaboration, and connecting students with wider movements working towards the transformation of business and economics education.

The developments of the past months demonstrate that when young people have access to the right community, knowledge, relationships, and opportunities, they can begin reshaping not only their organisations but also the institutions and systems around them.

Thank you for making this work possible. Your support helps build the infrastructure for young people to shape the future.