CoHE President Özvar announced the new project of the Council of Higher
Education in Samsun: "Sports Friendly Campus Project"
Özvar: "With the Sports Friendly Campus Project, we aim to increase the
awareness of doing sports among our youth and make exercise a habit"
May 13, 2024 / Samsun
Erol Özvar, President of the Council of Higher Education, announced the
"Sports Friendly Campus" project that will be carried out with the Ministry
of Youth and Sports to support students to do sports.
Özvar said: "With the Sports Friendly Campus Project, we aim to carry out
necessary training and awareness-raising activities to increase
participation in physical activity and regular exercise on our campuses, to
increase the awareness of doing sports among our young people and to make
exercise a habit."
The presentation of the project was held at Ondokuz Mayıs University in
Samsun with the participation of approximately 100 national athletes from
35 branches.
In addition to Özvar, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Halis Yunus
Ersöz, CoHE Executive Board Member Prof. Naci Gündoğan, Ondokuz Mayıs
University Rector Prof. Yavuz Ünal, Samsun University Rector Prof. Mahmut
Aydın and many lecturers and students attended the promotion ceremony.
Özvar stated that with the Sports Friendly Campus Project, the performance
of universities in this field will be measured annually through certain
evaluation criteria.
At the promotional event, Özvar started the bicycle race in which students
participated, and also started the basketball competition. Özvar then played
a football match with the university's football team and academics.
In his speech, Özvar emphasized the importance of announcing the project at
Ondokuz Mayıs University during the week of May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk,
Youth and Sports Day and celebrated May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth
and Sports Day.
Stating that sports contributes to the formation of a healthy society by
strengthening the physical, social, psychological, cultural and mental
development of people, Özvar explained that sports is also an important
educational tool that facilitates the development of personality, the
development of character traits, facilitates adaptation to the environment
by gaining knowledge, skills and attitudes, increases the person's fighting
power and teaches them to compete in competition according to certain
rules.
Özvar pointed out that encouraging the active participation of individuals
in sports, adopting sports as a lifestyle and ensuring its spread to the
masses in an organized manner starting from schools is the basic principle
of Turkish sports policies in the Development Plans, and emphasized that
the lack of physical activity among young people, especially in recent
years due to the global epidemic and digital addiction, has become an
important problem.
Özvar stated that research in this field revealed that 83 percent of
university students have a "sedentary lifestyle", which means a lifestyle
in which physical activity is absent or irregular, and said, "For this
reason, we aim to increase the awareness of doing sports among young people
and make exercise a habit among young people by conducting the necessary
training and awareness-raising activities to increase participation in
physical activity and regular exercise on our campuses."
"Sports performance of universities will be measured"
Özvar, President of the Council of Higher Education, explained the
objectives of the Sports Friendly Campus Project:
"The project aims to make use of the extracurricular time of university
students, to protect the physical and mental health of our young people and
to support their balanced development processes, to encourage everyone
living on campuses, especially young people, to sports and physical
activity and to make regular sports a philosophy of life, to improve the
sports facilities and activities on campuses, to increase cooperation with
stakeholders in sports activities. It is aimed to increase the sports
activities of student communities and clubs by expanding them, to ensure the
participation of disadvantaged students and students in need of support in
sports activities, to support the physical activities of the academic and
administrative staff of our universities and and to contribute to raising
awareness about the creation of sports-friendly and healthy campuses in our
universities. "
"Flags will be given to universities that encourage sports"
Stating that most universities have modern sports facilities equipped with
the latest technology, Özvar said that with the project, they aim to
support students and employees to maintain healthy lifestyles and do
sports.
Regarding the project to be carried out together with the Ministry of Youth
and Sports, Özvar said, "As the Council of Higher Education, the
performances of our universities in this field will be measured annually
through the Sports Friendly Campus Evaluation Criteria, which we have
developed as a result of our long-term consultations with all our
stakeholders, especially our academicians who are experts in the field, the
heads of health, sports and culture departments of various universities and
our University Sports Games Federation."
Özvar stated that the performance criteria include many criteria ranging
from whether universities have a mission and vision and a strategy based on
the "sports-friendly campus approach", national and international
certificates for healthy living and sports activities on campus, and whether
preventive awareness activities are carried out to combat addiction for
campus residents. Özvar also noted that many issues such as national and
international competitions, individual sports activities, team sports,
mental activities, and the measurement of maintenance, security and
cleaning of facilities are among the criteria.
"The applications to be made by our universities will be evaluated by
impartial and expert panelists and the results of the evaluation will be
shared with the public every year during the week of May 19th Commemoration
of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day. We also plan to include this area in the
University Monitoring and Evaluation Report, which we regularly publish
every year. We will carry out the Sports Friendly Campus Project together
with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. By utilizing the sports
infrastructure facilities provided by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to
our universities, as well as other facilities of the Ministry, we will
highlight our universities that encourage our university students to do
sports regularly and these universities will receive various flags
determined by the Council of Higher Education and the Ministry. Every year,
through this ranking, the ranking of our universities will be evaluated
according to their contribution to sports."
Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Halis Yunus Ersöz: "We will ensure
the mass popularization of sports together"
Halis Yunus Ersöz, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, drew attention to
the importance of this project to be launched at universities in terms of
the massification of sports and said, "We have implemented an important
project in the context of the massification of sports. With the project, we
will encourage our university students to move more and make physical
mobility a part of their lives. We will ensure the mass popularization of
sports together."
At the end of the event, Özvar, President of the Council of Higher
Education, presented awards to the champion athletes of Ondokuz Mayıs
University's football team, who came first in the Football Super League
organized by the Turkish University Sports Federation, and the champion
athletes of the university's taekwondo women's team.