International Students’ Day is an international observance of student community, held annually on November 17.

In 1946, the World Congress of Students declared November 17 International Students’ Day, in memory of patriotic Czech students. 

The date commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 German Nazi storming of the University of Prague after demonstrations against the killing of Jan Opletal and worker Václav Sedláček as well as against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.

The German Nazis rounded up the students, murdered nine student leaders and sent over 1,200 students to concentration camps. Subsequently, they closed all Czech universities and colleges. 

Originally commemorating the Nazi German storming of universities in 1939 and the subsequent killing and sending of students to concentration camps, a number of universities, however, now mark it for a nonpolitical celebration of the multiculturalism of their international students.