Student Sport Ireland would like to congratulate Waterford Institute of Technology for receiving certification from FISU onto the FISU Healthy Campus Programme and becoming the first institution in Ireland to receive this status.

Student Sort Ireland President Matthew Dossett shared his delight and appreciation to the news, “Congratulations to our colleagues in WIT for achieving FISU healthy campus status, which marks the great programmes and structures in place for students and staff in Waterford. It is great to see excellent work such as this happening across the SSI membership being officially recognised internationally. The health and wellbeing of those within the HE and 3rd level sector has never been more important. As we emerge from the restrictions of COVID-19 and begin to re-calibrate, I look forward to seeing more institutions adopting a ‘Healthy and Active Campus’ ethos, and for SSI to enabling, supporting, and driving this work through sport and physical activity”.

The FISU Healthy Campus Programme continues to grow, closing in on having sixty global universities on the platform. The project, launched in May 2020, aims to enhance all aspects of health and well-being for students on university campuses worldwide, through the structured promotion of physical activity and healthy practices

Waterford IT is one of 57 major institutions on the programme now and the latest entrants to seek certification includes Ulster University, with IT Carlow, IT Sligo, Munster Technological University – Kerry Campus and University College Cork in the process already

“It is very satisfying that programme continues to grow with great interest from FISU members,” said Fernando Parente, FISU Director of Healthy Campus and Universities Relations. “Many universities contact us to learn more about the certification process.”

The most recent universities to achieve certification are Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland, the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN, Moscow) and University of Lucerne from Switzerland.
“WIT Vikings Sport and WIT Novus together with WIT are delighted to be part of the FISU Healthy Campus Programme, an exciting global initiative that embeds health and wellbeing into all aspects of campus culture, which in turn improves our student’s lifestyles. We are very proud to be the first in Ireland to receive the certification.”, says Katie Redmond, WIT Vikings Sport Manager.

“Initially, the project seemed like a large undertaking, however through implementation of a project management team, the process was made seamless, In this first phase of the FISU Healthy Campus programme, we collected all the good practices we already had in place from the different services, departments and schools within WIT. Our WIT Vikings Sports office led this and worked closely with our various stakeholders. For us, the strengths and processes were already in place; we just had to demonstrate them,”said Redmond.

“As soon as a university reaches the certification level, the 40 validated criteria out of 100, we begin to evaluate good practices,” explained FISU’s Parente. “The ten universities that have reached this level have all developed exceptional work in general, namely in the area of physical activity and sport for the entire community, as well as giving special attention to mental health, particularly in these pandemic times

“I agree that the FISU Healthy Campus programme is a great tool to create a global strategy inside the university,” added Katie Redmond. “The programme certainly helps to develop cooperation between different departments within the institute.

One of the motivations for universities to join FISU Healthy Campus is that the programme also provides information and guidance within the scope of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs) of the United Nations. In addition, it is an excellent opportunity for the members of the programme to gain access to exclusive information and best practices from other universities around the world.

For more information on the FISU Healthy Campus programme, contact healthy.campus@fisu.net