Does a student need official permission to publish an independent research article with university affiliation? When a junior student is doing research independently (for example theoretical), does s/he need official permission to publish a research article? In the article, s/he needs to introduce his/her affiliation. Normally, this affiliation is connected with the research funding.

Does studentship qualify him/her to use the university name as his own official affiliation, even if this affiliation has no connection with this independent research project?
First, check if your university has rules/policies/guidelines in place. If so, follow them.
Otherwise, use your university name as affiliation. No need to ask them. (Trust me, they are much more worried about people forgetting to use the affiliation, than the other way around!)