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Student Projects Underway, The 2020 FISU World Forum Looks To Set New Benchmarks

The 2020 edition of the FISU World Forum is one week away, and preparations are in full swing for what will be a first-of-its-kind event, with nearly 1500 participants coming together virtually.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 FISU World Forum from 12-14 August 2020 will be the first-ever online edition of this flagship FISU educational event. Among the 1200 participants that have already registered, about half are students, 40% are officials from FISU’s member federations and more than 100 are from the extended FISU Family.

“Every two years, the FISU World Forum offers an opportunity for the entire FISU Family to gather and to exchange ideas, contacts, and good practices in the field of university sports,” said Dr. Verena Burk, Chair of the FISU Education Committee. “Despite this year’s situation worldwide, I am pleased that the FISU World Forum will be hosted digitally. This pioneering event organised by FISU, the Hungarian University Sports Federation as well as the University of Physical Education of Budapest will allow students, officials, and other partners involved in the University Sports Movement to share their respective vision and experiences.”

This year’s student project, which usually takes place simultaneously during the Forum, has already been kicked off beforehand. The pre-learning platform has been online and available since 1 August onwards. Guided by the FISU Education Committee, the students receive a series of tips on how to develop and run a project.

The theme for this year’s projects will be revealed on 6 August.

“It is an exciting theme that the students can adapt their projects to,” said Donna Spethman of the FISU Education Committee, who is also Secretary-General of FISU Oceania. “The project theme was chosen to reflect the current environment and how sport can be a positive influence on the life of a student.”

96 students representing all five Continental University Sports Federations (CUSFs) and 55 countries are participating in the student projects. In total, over 500 students have access to the e-learning platform

“Having the student programme run in parallel to the FISU World Forum also enables students to network, connect and share ideas with other students from across the world,” explained Renata Bojczuk, member of the FISU Education Committee. “It also gives students the chance to influence the development of university sport, not only at their local or national level but also at the international level. At the same time, this gives FISU new ideas to develop and explore based on project concepts.”

Press Release

Date: 5 August 2020

“Due to the unique environment of the Forum being online this year, we developed a pre-learning course for all students that will help them in developing their projects,” added Spethman.

Having been already placed into their groups, the students will now work together on their projects which they will submit the Jury by 13 August. The Jury will then review and assess each project based on the following criteria:

The project must be relevant, respond to real needs, and be addressed to a concrete target group.

The project must be realistic in terms of scope, budget, and time. It must fit within the competition theme and should be innovative.

• The project should be deliverable at a local, national, or international level.

The final projects will be presented on 14 August, during the main programme of the 2020 FISU World Forum. The full programme can be found below.

The group that delivers the winning project will receive a special award from FISU and the 2020 FISU World Forum Organising Committee. More importantly, however, all students would have gained new competencies and made new friends from all over the world.