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.


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