Built on a bespoke digital platform that enables universities to track and improve student and the entire campus community's health and wellbeing, the FISU Health Campus initiative has already surpassed expectations one month since its public launch. 

Forged from the evidence-backed experiences and insights of 30 world health experts, 27 universities from five continents have already signed up for the programme. And interest is only growing as FISU received an additional 100 requests from universities for more information, with 30 webinars in the first 30 days of the programme launch having taken place with interested universities. 

FISU Healthy Campus and Institutional Relations Director Fernando Parente credits the fast start to the programme directly tailored to meet an immediate — and growing — need: effectively and proactively addressing student health and wellbeing on the university campus.  

"We have directly aligned the FISU Healthy Campus Programme with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development so that our work with the experts and universities provides a shared blueprint for better health and student welfare outcomes,” Parente said. “We base the programme’s guidelines from UNESCO Kazan Action Plan and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030.

"Not only is regular physical activity proven to prevent deadly diseases such as strokes, diabetes, and breast and colon cancer, it helps prevent hypertension and obesity. Physical activity is also shown to improve one’s mental health and quality of life."

Sport and student life converge on campus during last year's International Day of University Sport, celebrated annually on 20 September

“Our programme represents not only a great opportunity for the students but also the universities themselves,” Parente noted. “Since universities are evaluated internally and internationally for their performance on key sustainable development goals, monitoring their progress with the FISU Healthy Campus programme helps them reach their certification needs across a whole host of additional international standards and rankings.”

Universities enrolled in the FISU Healthy Campus initiative now have nine months to complete their self-assessment questionnaire that FISU will then evaluate before certifying the educational institution with the FISU Healthy Campus Label. Recognising the need to raise the tide of all boats in the university educational system, schools must meet a minimum of 40 of the programme’s 100 criteria in the first year to achieve the initiative’s label — a number that increases with a university’s years of involvement in the programme. 

Competitive intercollegiate sport is only one of the many ways students can practice regular physical activity on their university campus

“The main goals of the FISU Healthy Campus are to develop excellence in the scope of wellbeing for campus communities and local cohesion,” Parente emphasised. “With 27 universities already on board, we have a strong start to realising our ambitions but still plenty of work to do to share globally the best practices that universities can do to help their campus community enhance their health and life satisfaction.”

Scene from the closing ceremony of the Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade, an event bringing together university sportspersons from around the globe for 11 days of events