A student strike occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school

School

A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

, college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 or university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 refuse to go to class. This form of strike action

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 is often used as a negotiating tactic in order to put pressure on the governing body of the university, particularly in countries where education is free, and the government cannot afford to have a student cohort

Cohort (statistics)

In statistics and demography, a cohort is a group of subjects who have shared a particular time together during a particular time span . Cohorts may be tracked over extended periods in a cohort study. The cohort can be modified by censoring, i.e...

 miss an entire year. This can cause an overload of students in one academic term

Academic term

An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms...

 and the absence of an entire class in the following term.

In the West, student strikes date to the early days of universities in the Middle Ages, with one of the earliest and most significant being the University of Paris strike of 1229

University of Paris strike of 1229

In 1229, a student riot at the University of Paris resulted in the deaths of a number of students, and the ensuing "dispersion" or student strike in protest lasted more than two years and led to a number of reforms of the medieval university...

, which lasted 2 years and yielded significant concessions.