Student participation in higher education governance is low in most countries. This is puzzling especially in countries like Czechia that have established radically democratic academic structures open to student involvement. This article therefore seeks to explain the determinants of student turnout (an important form of student participation) in elections to academic senates. It does so by weaving together two strands of literature that hardly ever communicate: the political science research on electoral turnout and the education research on student involvement in academic governance. After developing a theoretical model of student turnout the article provides the first systematic test of the determinants of turnout in elections to non-political offices using unique data from Czech faculties at public universities. Standard rational choice model of turnout developed for elections to political offices was found to be appropriate for explaining student turnout. Institutional prescriptions to increase student participation are discussed.