The International University Sports Federation (FISU) marks a successful first year of Healthy Campus living.

The FISU Healthy Campus certificate is expected to become a global benchmark for health and wellbeing in universities around the world. This valuable tool for development allows universities to share their experiences and knowledge among one another, to help improve their work and study environment.

“The registered universities, which number 72 as I speak, are very enthusiastic,” FISU Secretary General-CEO Eric Saintrond explains. “However, more than 200 meetings have already been held with others that will join the programme. Our expectations for further growth are high; universities always take some time to register after being introduced to the programme, but we will soon see the impact of the work that we’ve been putting in.”

The Swiss-based international federation’s programme was developed by studying best practices and benchmarking physical activity levels worldwide. This led to the creation of seven domains that are tailor made to encourage health and wellbeing on campuses:

• Physical activity and sport

• Nutrition

• Disease prevention

• Mental and social health

• Risk behaviour

• Environment, sustainability and social responsibility

• Healthy Campus management

“The feedback that we’ve received from the universities has been even more positive than we could have wished for, and this does reflect the great benefits of this programme – namely working towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in an organised manner and in a variety of different fields,” continues Saintrond. “It has also developed better cohesion and coordination among all departments and services within universities.”

To mark the first anniversary of the programme, FISU Healthy Campus will publish the best practices of certified universities on its platform, so that others who decide to join the programme can benefit from the knowledge and experiences of a vast network of universities who have already reached important milestones in their development.

“We are impressed not only with the number of universities who have committed to the programme,” explains the Director of FISU Healthy Campus, Fernando Parente, “but also the quality of the work done by the universities. The criteria necessary for certification have been very important to ensure that universities are on track to achieve sustainable health and wellbeing on campus in the long term.”

For more information about the programme, registration and best practices, please visit the FISU Healthy Campus website. For instructions on how to get your university involved, please contact healthy.campus@fisu.net.

Developed by FISU and launched in May 2020, the FISU Healthy Campus certificate was created to help set health and wellbeing standards for universities around the world, while encouraging sustainability in accordance with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

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Since its founding in 1949, the International University Sports Federation (FISU) has been the governing body of university sport worldwide. Through its 174 members, FISU offers opportunities and inspiration to students around the world to be active and to participate in sport.

For more information, please contact FISU Media at media@fisu.net or our Media & Communication Acting Director Anthony Schaub at a.schaub@fisu.net or directly on +41 (0) 78 713 3910.

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