The Institute for Physical and Sport at the University of Malta is hosting the second monitoring workshop of the Erasmus+ project ESTPORT - 'Developing an innovative European Sport Tutorship model for the dual career of athletes' from 25 to 28 January, 2017.
The project aims to develop, transfer and implement an innovative 'EU Sport Tutorship programme' in European Universities, involving public authorities, sport-related organisations and educational actors, as key stakeholders, to accomplish the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes. The project is led by UCAM (Universidad Catolica di Murcia), and other partners are Università degli studi di Roma - Foro Italico, Leeds Trinity University in the United Kingdom, and the University of Thessaly in Greece. Validation of this project is being carried out by the project partner Europa Community from the UK.
The project aims to develop, transfer and implement an innovative 'EU Sport Tutorship programme' in European Universities, involving public authorities, sport-related organisations and educational actors, as key stakeholders, to accomplish the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes. The project is led by UCAM (Universidad Catolica di Murcia), and other partners are Università degli studi di Roma - Foro Italico, Leeds Trinity University in the United Kingdom, and the University of Thessaly in Greece. Validation of this project is being carried out by the project partner Europa Community from the UK.
In the initial phase of this project, data was collected through questionnaires with student-athletes attending all four partner Universities to study how they cope with academic work and training, the kind of support they are given, and any challenges they encounter. Four workshops were held, during which various issues were discussed, including the University regulations and the use of technology to support elite athletes who need to travel abroad to participate in international competitions held during the academic year. During the workshops, student-athletes shared their experiences and challenges and put forward various recommendations to enhance their success in both their sporting and academic career. Flexibility emerged as the key factor required to accommodate student-athletes.
A pilot project with two tutors supporting nine student-athletes was carried out and following an evaluation of this pilot, a call for tutors was made to extend the project to more student-athletes and faculties. Nine tutors from nine different faculties volunteered as sport tutors and 18 student-athletes are currently benefiting from the support of a sport tutor.
During the workshop that is being held in Malta, the project partners will present and evaluate the work carried out in different Universities during the past year and the results of a follow-up study carried out last December through questionnaires with student-athletes. Besides the academic and administrative partners in this project, two elite athletes from each University will also attend this workshop and will contribute in a round table discussion. One of the Spanish athletes attending the workshop is Sofia Toro, an Olympic gold winner in Sailing in London 2012 Olympics, and world champion in 2013.
Results emerging from the project are being published in international journals and the final conclusions of this project will be presented in a handbook combining the methodology, guidelines, best practices and recommendations and conclusions. The project will come to an end in June 2017, when the partners, tutors and students will meet in Murcia to discuss the main conclusions.