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Home News Inaugural FISU Academic Advisory Board meets in Lausanne

Inaugural FISU Academic Advisory Board meets in Lausanne

FISU 24 September 2018

 

LAUSANNE – Since FISU’s founding, the Federation has been a key driver to expand the role and reach of university sport worldwide. On 22 September, this tradition continued as FISU organised the first meeting of its newly created Academic Advisory Board. The meeting took place at FISU Headquarters, in the International University Sports Cluster on the University of Lausanne campus. The event coincided with the Lausanne in Motion Festival, part of the International Day of University Sports celebrations.

 

The Board was created in March this year at the FISU President’s initiative, with the purpose of promoting university sports, the values of Olympic and university sports, and the FISU brand within a larger university community.

 

In line with its regulations, the FISU Academic Advisory Board consists of the following members: rectors from the universities of Turin and Lausanne, five additional rectors which are nominated by FISU’s continental university sports federations, and up to three individual members, appointed directly by the FISU President.

 The FISU Academic Advisory board members outside the headquarters of international university sport

The current composition of the Board includes Dr Gianmaria Ajani, Rector of the University of Turin; Dr Nouria Hernandez, Rector of the University of Lausanne; Dr Mark Emmert, President of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA); Dr Daniel Eduardo Martínez, Rector of the National University of La Matanza, representing FISU America; Dr Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Johannesburg, representing Federation of African University Sports; Dr Hao Ping, Chairman of University Council, Peking University, representing Asian University Sports Federation; Dr João Gabriel Silva, Rector of the University of Coimbra, representing European University Sports Association.

 

All members except Dr Emmert and Dr Marwala attended the inaugural meeting in Lausanne. FISU was represented by President Oleg Matytsin, Secretary General Eric Saintrond, Senior Executive Committee Member and Chair of the Education Committee Verena Burk, and Director General Paulo Ferreira. The meeting consisted of two sessions: in the morning the FISU sports programme was discussed, while the afternoon session was dedicated to FISU’s educational events and initiatives.

 

After the presentations made by Mr Saintrond, Mr Ferreira and Ms Burk, it was time for discussion, which mainly focused on the further development of World University Championships and Leagues programme, the prospect of a shift to intra-university competition format and the implementation of Healthy Campus project.

 

Between the two sessions, members of the board attended the Lausanne in Motion Festival to celebrate the International Day of University Sport (IDUS), together with FISU staff and the citizens of Lausanne.

 

The Board has officially scheduled its next meeting for 20-21 September 2019, but FISU has already invited members to attend the upcoming 2019 Winter Universiade Krasnoyarsk and the FISU World Conference on Innovation-Education-Sport.