8th FISU FORUM - ABU DHABI 2006
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - March 25th to 30th, 2006
MAIN TOPIC: University Sport, a Tool for Individual Development Understanding Diversity
by Renata Kosciukiewicz, CESU Member Member of International Commission of the University Sports Association of Poland (AZS)
We are living in the times of strong emphasis on the personality and the uniqueness of each human being. To have a strong personality always means to have strong values. Originally, the FISU was formed within university institutions in order to promote sports values and encourage sporting practice in harmony with, and complementary to, the university spirit. The balanced development of the spirit, the intelligence and the body is still an exceptional value of the university sport. The modern education concerns the individual development, which is not just intellectual and physical, but also moral and relational. According to the modern theories what is the most important about individual development is to realise that there is no single formula that defines the path to personal success. We all have different goals and priorities, different natural strengths and weaknesses. There is no quick scheme that will make us successful persons. It depends a lot on our way of life, which determinates that some values are stronger for us than the others. Sport is a way of life: the practise and the values of the university sport are certainly a powerful aid in our quest for excellence. Somehow the life is like a sport competition: it’s about reaching the best possible score. The important value of the university sport is to teach us the rules of the competition, including the rules of the free competition, which on one hand permits us to reach high results in the society, and on the other hand, respects the universal ethic values. Indeed, for students practising sport at university, the sports results are not considered as an end, but as an element in the development of peoples’ own potential. It is so because today if you want to be a leader of tomorrow you must acquire the force and courage, the knowledge and the know-how, and above all, the knowledge to live together. In the Lisbon Declaration, we recognised a number of characteristics by which the university sports improves the individual development and prepare to the life in the society: • Social competencies and active citizenship; • Team working, advanced levels of autonomy and self regulation with obvious benefits at both cognitive and motivational levels; • Organisation and project planning; • Development of higher levels of thought and decision making; • Financial management; • Life long learning - Emotional intelligence and balance of the “self”, especially through the capacity to defer gratification and to manage strategic long-term objectives; • Health and increased productivity; • Improved mobility as skilled, international and inter-generational communicators; • Character formation and consolidation of values, based on the respect for the other, on fair-play and on truth; • Acknowledgement of diversity and the appreciation of intercultural contact. Thanks to these competencies the university sport helps to develop social, educational, and cultural responsibility in young people. And so the university sport becomes somehow training in active citizenship, training for professional life and training for social life. Practising and organising university sport both, on local and on international level, constantly face us with the issues like: integration, solidarity, co-operation, partnership, exchange. They all involve the exploration of differences. We are distinguished and united by differences and similarities according to gender, age, language, culture, race, religion, beliefs, disability, education, marital status -just to name a few. By exploring differences, in a positive confrontation, far away from discrimination and stereotypes phenomenon, we start to understand diversity. It is through the reconciliation of differences and the cross-cultural awareness that we use and manage the power of cross-cultural differences. This skill of cross-cultural management is an added value of the university sport movement. Thanks to its universal values, the mobility and a constant exchange, the university sport is a perfect tool for individual development, for understanding diversity and intercultural learning. It helps us to become leaders, able to welcome the differences, whatever difference we talk about, able to delight in the sharing it, exchanging it and able to manage it. Therefore we become better prepared to face the needs of the constantly changing world and society.
SUB-TOPIC A Sport and Extra Curricular Activities as a Way of Life at Universities and a Part of Individual Development
by Nico Sperle, CESU Member Head of University Sport Centre, Aachen University (Germany)
1. University Sport has unique values University Sport is world wide a part of University’s profile and University’s marketing strategy. The value of University Sport is that students get the chance • to improve their excellence in sport, • to learn something about health care, • to enjoy movement and their bodies, • doing long life sport and getting benefit in the field of soft skills, while taking part in University Sport. Organisation, communication and social competences can be experienced while being engaged in University Sport. This might be a big profit for students’ life and for their carrier. 2. University Sport could be the biggest cultural contribution at the universities The possibilities of University Sport to communicate with a big number of students and to make them participating is enormous. Students mostly join the program – especially if it is on a voluntary basis - with great pleasure and enjoyment. University Sport can and should enrich every student’s life. There are examples were more than 60% of the students participating in University Sport week by week, depending on the infrastructure. 3. University Sport is a part of the way of life at universities and young people can find their specific activities Life style trends are integrated in student’s life, they are apart of it. University sport programs go along with general life style trends. Trends in University Sport can and should create specific attraction beyond its core activities. Some of these trends are so called “mega trends”. Some of these general trends are: • Individuality • High Tech communication • Health and wellness • Gender equity • Speed • Endurance • Anti-aging To fulfil the goal that University Sport programs are a part of the “day by day cultural activities” university sport centres should offer a wide variety of different sport activities. Every student should find his/her favourite sport activity. 4. University Sport programs create certain sport trends itself Students are open minded, flexible and independent , creative and eager to develop activities along their personal need and wishes. Some trend sport activities were created at universities e.g. Ultimate Frisbee; Unihockey). 5. University Sport can enrich students life on different levels and in different ways and has educational qualities 1. Students can learn team playing, cooperation, developing friendship, democratic principles etc. 2. Students can learn new skills, new programs, new values, and management skills. 3. Students have the chance to learn general aspects of physiology, health and body movement.
SUB-TOPIC B: Role of Sport Among Women in Different Societies and Culture
by Gyongyi Foldesi, CESU Member Hungarian University of Physical Education
In everyday life sport is regarded as a competitive physical activity demanding the demonstration of physical prowess. However, sport is also a social institution, a microcosm of boarder society. It serves as a mirror of social life in which it is embedded. Consequently, the past and present of sport, including women’s sport, reflect the nature of society and culture in which it was born and developed. At the rise of modern sport, women were excluded from the world of sport, but throughout history they could have engaged in a variety of forms of sport roles, but in different ways and to different extents in the individual societies and cultures. The major differences and similarities concerning the various sport-related roles can be summarized as follows: Women as Athletes In most advanced countries both elite and recreational sport are open for girls and women. However, (1) there are not too many professional female athletes; (2) high rates of physical inactivity can be observed even in these countries. In traditional societies mostly health-related physical activity is promoted, contributing to women’s overall physical and mental state. Social equity in connection with sport involvement is relatively higher in university sport in most societies and cultures than in other areas of sport. Women as Sport Administrators Generally speaking there are much less women in decision making position in sport than men all over the world. Notwithstanding, in the most advanced societies the rate and the role of women in sport administration significantly increased during the last decades. In traditional societies women have the chance to contribute to decision making processes only in their own sports. Women as Spectators Since sport was dominated by male-defined culture, at the beginning women were not really expected to attend sporting events. In traditional societies this pattern has still survived. However, even here new models for being spectators (watching sport programmes on television) have emerged for women. Today in advanced societies the role of sporting fans seems to be attractive to more and more women and they are encouraged to attend sporting events. In the life of university students dramatic changes have not been noticed concerning the interest in attending sporting events or watching/reading sporting news. They seem to prefer and to play a more active role in sport.
Organising Committee
Organising Committee 8th FISU Forum P.O. Box 15551, Al Ain, UAE Tel. :+ 971 3 713 1225 Fax : + 971 3 754 5277 e-mail : e.francis@uaeu.ac.ae URL: http://fisuforum.uae.gov.ae
News
SUB-TOPIC C Promotion of University Sport
by Alison Odell, FISU Assessor, CESU Vice-Chair Director of Sport, University of Manchester (United Kingdom of GB & NI)
Marketing communications or promotion can be described as establishing contact with consumers and organisations to influence their knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in a direction that is favourable for the marketing policy. The aim of corporate communication involves building up trust and goodwill among internal and external relationship groups. Public relations (PR) activities are often employed for this goal. During the workshop on ‘promotion of university sport’, workshop sub-groups will be encouraged to explore the three statements above in relation to the individual university/institution approach, the national federation approach and FISU’s approach to the subject. Groups will be asked to identify the target markets for university sport, consider the various instruments or tools of promotion through which the marketer spreads information regarding the value and benefits of “university sport”, having first considered the meaning of “university sport” in each context, its value(s), properties and rights, and above all its USP (unique selling point). The main elements in the promotional toolkit which will be discussed and enlarged upon are: Advertising Sales promotion Public relations Personal selling Delegates will also be asked to examine the following issues which the development of a promotion strategy raises, and then apply some of the conclusions in either developing an outline strategy for their national federation or in offering constructive criticism of FISU’s promotion strategy. • What is the purpose of the communication? • What message is to be said? • How is it to be said? • Where is it to be said? • When is it to be said? • What resources (money, people) are to be allocated to the promotion effort? • Who should manage the promotional effort? • How is the promotional effort to be evaluated?
SUB-TOPIC D: Leadership and University Sport
by Renata Kosciukiewicz, CESU Member Member of International Commission of University Sports Association of Poland (AZS)
Naturally the university sport is connected to the leadership. The word itself is deeply written in the sports language, although it could mean literally a leader and a ship. It is so because each sport is connected to it in some extend. What makes it different from other sports is that the values of a good leadership are at the same time the core values of the university sport philosophy and ideas. The role itself of the university sport is to deliver leaders for the society: intelligent, healthy, courageous, strong, responsible and able to work in a group. Good leaders are made not born. To be a good leader, you must first be a good person. The university sport is a training of self-discipline, compromise, ability to make decision, sometimes humility and always perseverance. Somebody said that leadership is about values and engagement. You must be persistent to reach the result, to reach the goal, to have success. You must to have a passion: it’s not easy to combine studies and sport. At the same time you must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do. To be a good leader, there are things that you must (be), know, and do. To be means to be professional in all your actions. To know means to know yourself, your team and your job. To do means to take commitment, provide direction, to implement and to motivate. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. The university sport is a perfect tool for individual development, both for the sports practice values and university values. It’s a factor of forging characters, a sense of creation and sense of responsibility. Practising and/or organising university sports activities develop organisational skills, managing skills and leadership skills. The real value of leadership, like in sports, lies in execution. The key difference between a great advisor and a great leader is in the ability to turn ideas into reality. For a long time the leadership was associated with the action indeed, today we realise that leadership is even more a relation. You need to have a spirit of a team. You need to be able to motivate, to inspire and to guide others, able to solve conflicts and able to find solutions. In general people recognised as leaders: - know and understand the goals and objectives of the organism in the frame of which they function - are able to communicate this understanding or this vision of the future - naturally know or they have learnt how to work with others - took time to organise themselves well - have competencies in communication: they speak clearly and with confidence - can function with a certain number of conflicts and they realise that it’s impossible to satisfy everybody - can stimulate the others to accomplish more than they would have believed they were able to do In the university sport of nowadays we find many of these competencies. There is also a strong Olympic value of fair play, which applies to the sports life and social life. When we talk about leaders, these values must be not only chosen and showed but, above all, active and underlined. Leadership is not a state, it’s an attitude. In this regard, in the opposite to the word of sport, the title of a leader will not make you a leader. It is similar to the university sport where the goal is about developing ones’ potential rather than to reach high result no matter the price. The leadership is a long-life learning process and a model of engagement in the life, in the society.
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