**3. The concept of student leadership**

Today, a digital native being at ease with the computing devices and mobile and looking for information on the Internet is called a learner today. They differ from each other when you consider their needs and aspirations. Each learner is often online as are the providers of education and content, platforms of peer learning, and publishers. Learning is not confined to the class any more. As education 4.0 is characterized by personalization of the learning experience, even the universities fail to comprehend in what ways the technological and social differences affect them because they do not own enough digital infrastructure and forays. However, good universities focus on procedures valuing personalization of learning and leave technology-supported and process-driven learning and teaching systems behind. They give priority to flexible paths of learning focusing on the use of technology and imparting life skills through learner-centered methods and procedures.

Education 4.0 proposes complete flexibility for the learner in shaping and structuring their future providing them with freedom of aspiring, approaching, and achieving their own objectives through created opportunities of better learning supported by technology. These opportunities offer a greater deal of flexibility and customization using technology to make personalized learning both dynamic and approachable. Unless otherwise, it would not be easy to apply personalized learning with no educational technology ranging from digital content to adaptive learning software.

The term "student leadership" is interchangeably used with the concepts of student participation, voice, and agency, and there is a tendency to define a spectrum of practices and activities constituting student leadership and voice. For example, Fielding (2001) [2] has framed a typology ranging from young individuals, who serve solely as a data source for school systems and their processes to performing as active researchers driving changes in schools of their own, whereas Holdsworth has offered a spectrum of student participation, voice, and leadership ranging from young individuals "speaking out" to "sharing decision-making (and) implementation of action" ([3], p. 358). On the other hand, Mitra's pyramid of student voice ranges from merely "being heard" to "building capacity for leadership" ([4], p. 7, **Figure 1**).

It can clearly be seen that the United National Convention on the Rights of the Child states the need for participation and freedom, which calls for signatories to "assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child" [5]. Within this framework, student leadership practices come out of the abovementioned rights-based concept, showing the significance of capacity of young individuals to play a key role in their decision-making process impacting them.

Together with the introduction of Industry 4.0, the job scenario has totally changed leading to the growth of the "nontraditional" student. That is to say, in other words, any student, who is prepared for the university following his or her high school years and enrolled in full-time classes to finish a degree, is not the norm any longer. This attributed role to the learner has been evolving over the years, and it is not easy to put the learner in a defined age bracket today. Any prototype change is not evitable to supply the needs to this changing target segment of a nontraditional student. This paradigm shift requires more customization and flexibility, which makes personalized learning the preferred learning path.

**Figure 1.** *Pyramid of student voice, from increasing student voice and moving toward youth leadership. Source: Mitra [4].*

As shown in ARACY's The Nest action agenda, "evidence suggests young people's participation may have a range of important benefits for the individual, for organizations and for the broader community" [6]. It is clear to see that practices of decision-making and participation could provide the learners with the skills required for participation actively as responsible citizens in the schools systems and educational contexts.

We can say that there is not much consensus on the meaning and concept of student leadership even though there are many policy efforts targeted to reinforce student leadership and how it should be reinforced or even in what ways it must be named [7]. Literature review reveals that many other forms of usages and terms such as "active citizenship," "student participation," "student voice,", and "democratic schooling" are mainly used interchangeably with "student leadership." This high-level review has included evaluations, policy, and research documents made public to be able to enlighten the analysis of what is meant by student leadership. "Student voice" and "student agency" were also included as search terms when presented non-ambiguous descriptions given for the concept of student leadership.
