The Academy Advisory Board held it's first meeting at FISU headquarters in Lausanne on the International Day of University Sport ©FISU

The International University Sports Federation (FISU) Academy Advisory Board has held its first meeting as members took the opportunity in between sessions to attend the Lausanne in Motion Festival being held on the same day to help mark the International Day of University Sport.

The Board was created in March this year at the initiative of the FISU President Oleg Matytsin in order to promote university sports, the values of Olympic and university sports and the FISU brand within a larger university community.

At the meeting - which took place at FISU Headquarters, in the International University Sports Cluster on the University of Lausanne campus -  there was discussion of the further development of World University Championships and Leagues programme, the prospect of a shift to intra-university competition format and the implementation of the "healthy campus" project.

Board members heard presentations made by FISU’s secretary general Eric Saintrond, senior Executive Committee member and chairperson of the Education Committee Verena Burk and director general Paulo Ferreira.

Participants visited the Lausanne in Motion festival during the meeting ©FISU
Participants visited the Lausanne in Motion festival during the meeting ©FISU

The Board consists of rectors from the universities of Turin and Lausanne, five additional rectors nominated by FISU’s Continental University Sports Federations and up to three individual members appointed directly by the FISU President, who was in attendance at the meeting.

All members except two, National Collegiate Athletics Association President Mark Emmert and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg Tshilidzi Marwala, attended the inaugural meeting.

The Board has officially scheduled its next meeting for September 20 to 21 next year.

FISU has also invited members to attend the upcoming 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk and the FISU World Conference on Innovation-Education-Sport, due to be held during the event in the Russian city.