Officially launched in May, the FISU Healthy Campus scheme has already seen 35 universities from 24 countries register.

It seeks to help universities provide additional access to healthy choices in a variety of fields and promote physical activity.

ISCTE rector Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues, a former Portuguese Education Minister, spoke proudly of the school being the first to receive certification.

"ISCTE is a young university - we've been in operation for less than 50 years - in the centre of Lisbon, wherein the last few years we are able to create new projects and programmes such as improving sustainability in all we do or delivering sports services to our community," Rodrigues said.

"With about 10,000 students, we can maintain a positive and informal relationship between students, professors, researchers and staff. 

"We are strongly committed to the goal expressed on our Strategic Plan 2018-2021 of increasing well-being on campus, and giving our students, professors, researchers and staff members a fantastic experience."

ISCTE received the certification after working closely with its student union and sustainability office to show evidence of its work to boost student well-being.

From the second year of the scheme onwards, there will be five levels of Healthy Campus Label available - certified, bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

For now, certification is the best mark a university can achieve.

Rodrigues added: "Due to the university’s integrated quality system, we already achieved several criteria related to leadership, management and sustainability issues. 

"It is imperative to say that ISCTE is also strongly committed to the process of continuously improving quality systems and encompassing all our activities with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

"Our welfare services also works hard in the fields related to health and mental health support.  

"The University Sport Unit, created in 2018, also brought new ideas and empowered our student’s union sports program. 

"Together, they were able to plan sports activities for everyone – from on-campus fitness to competition.

"We have a long way to go; we must admit because we want to improve in several areas where we are still not so good at answering all the 100 indicators of the certification programme. 

"In fact, the certification made us understand which directions we must continue developing our campus in a better and positive way.

 "Our next steps will be increasing our coordination and leadership related to the FISU Healthy Campus programme and assigning more resources to its management and development."

Rodrigues added that ISCTE will further look to build a strong relationship with its members to make its campus more sustainable and active.

The university's rugby sevens team are also national champions.

They went undefeated at the National University Rugby Sevens Championship held in April 2019, and many players also currently play for Portugal’s national rugby team.