Armenia The
Armenian Student Sports Federation (ARMSSF) is a national
non-governmental organization responsible for advocating, supporting and promoting the interests of
students'
sports and physical activities in
Armenia. The headquarters of the federation is located in
Yerevan. The Federation maintains numerous cooperation agreements with
universities across Armenia. The Federation is responsible for sending student athletes to participate in various international and European level university sporting championships, including the
World University Summer & Winter Games, the
FISU World University Championships, and the Pan-European Student Games. The ARMSSF also organizes national events, competitions, and activities for students across Armenia and often collaborates with other sporting federations such as the
Armenian Table Tennis Federation, the
Armwrestling Federation of Armenia, the
Armenian National Rowing and Canoe Federation, and the
Figure Skating Federation of Armenia, among others. The ARMSSF organizes the annual "Student Sports Games of the Republic of Armenia". In November 2014, over 3500 students from 21
Armenian universities participated. The games are sponsored by the
Ministry of Education and Science. The history of university sports has received little academic attention in Australia. In 1863, rugby union was first played in Australia at the
University of Sydney when several clubs affiliated with the university were established. U Sports is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada. There are 12 different sports annually that compete at 21 national championships throughout the year. During the early stages of
World War II in the region, most universities suspended their sports programs. The exceptions were
Fu Ren University and
Yanjing University which kept these programmes open until 1942 before shutting them down. The
Chinese Basketball University Association (CUBA) is currently China's most popular and competitive collegiate basketball league. In 2018, AliSports acquired the rights to broadcast the league for $150 million. Other university sports associations such as the Chinese Football University Association and the Chinese Marathon University Association are being broadcast by AliSports.
India •
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy Indonesia •
Liga Mahasiswa Japan Japan began to engage in sports when Western-style sports were introduced to Japan from Europe and the United States as a byproduct of the Westernization policy developed by the
Meiji Restoration after three centuries of national isolation. This was accomplished by so-called "hired foreigners" invited by the new government and Japanese people returning to the West. There were various types of channels through which Western-style sports were introduced to Japan, but it was the schools that played a particularly important role in the frequent and sustained establishment of Western-style sports in Japan. After the student promulgation of 1873, modern sports first began to penetrate various schools, especially higher educational institutions such as universities, higher normal schools, and old high schools. Among the Westernization that was taking place in almost all areas of culture, including economics, politics, industrial technology, thought, literature, music, food, clothing, and architecture, the field of education in particular saw a remarkable development of Western-style sports. This was the groundwork for the emergence of Japan's unique modern sense of sports. The need to give meaning to the practice of sports in the field of education. In the latter half of the 19th century, the elevation of sports was being planned by "tough Christians" activists who were graduates of public schools and Oxford and Cambridge universities, which were attended by the children of gentlemen who were the dominant class of
British society and the children of the emerging middle class bourgeoisie who admired them. This view of sports provided the conditions for the Japanese of the time to develop sports in the schoolhouse. After returning from the US, Hiroshi Hiraoka (平岡凞), a railroad engineer, founded Japan's first baseball team, the Shinbashi Club. Rugby was the first sporting event in Japan, with the founding of the Keio University rugby club in 1899. Soccer was played in 1904 with the founding of the soccer club at
Tokyo Higher Normal School (
University of Tsukuba). American football dates from 1934 with the founding of the American football club at
Rikkyo University. Many of these new sports became popularized after being played by university teams (e.g.
lacrosse). In 2019, the Japan Association for University Athletics and Sport (UNIVAS), a general incorporated association, was established to strengthen university sports in Japan. See List of University Sports Competitions and Organizations in Japan(
ja) for more information on each athletic organization.
New Zealand New Zealand universities's sports teams normally compete in local sports leagues against non-university teams. The annual
New Zealand University Games covers a large number of sports and competitive cultural activities (such as debating). The event is typically held over
Easter, rotating around university centers.
Philippines The
Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines (FESSAP) is the governing body recognized by the
International University Sports Federation (FISU) in the Philippines. Notably, the two largest athletic associations in
Metro Manila, the
University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines) are not members, but the largest athletic association in
Metro Cebu,
Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc., is, as well as most other athletic associations in the provinces. The UAAP tried to wrest recognition away from FESSAP's recognition by FISU in 2013 but was denied.
South Africa Varsity Sports (South Africa) is an organization of university sports leagues in South Africa. The organization currently sponsors seven events: athletics, beach volleyball, association football, field hockey, netball, and rugby sevens. During the 1970s, the
National Union of South African Students worked to create a university sports program where race was not considered in team and competition arrangements. The organisation faced some governmental hurdles. At the time, inter-racial sports was only allowed to be played on private grounds, which meant games and competitions could not be played on public university grounds. They had models from the
University of Witwatersrand and the
University of Cape Town which had already held such events.
South Korea Collegiate sports are organized by the Korea University Sports Federation (KUSF) and students must be enrolled at a member institution in order to participate. It runs the
U-League in six sports (
baseball,
basketball,
football,
soft tennis and
volleyball) and the Club Championship in four team sports (baseball, basketball, football and volleyball). The U-League is mirrored after the domestic professional leagues and a large number of student-athletes eventually turn professional. The Club Championship is contested by college teams operated as intramural clubs.
United Kingdom In
Victorian Britain, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
rowing took pace at
Eton College,
Westminster School and other
public schools. The first
Eton v Harrow cricket match was held in 1805. These led to the first
University Match in cricket between
Oxford University and
Cambridge University in 1827 and
The Boat Race, which was first contested in 1829. Sports were assimilated into academic life at Oxford and Cambridge universities in the nineteenth century and became a feature of
Oxford–Cambridge rivalry. These early
varsity matches spread to other sports, other universities in the United Kingdom, to
college sports in the United States, and to university sports in
Commonwealth, European and other countries. Building on early
English public school football games, a group of students from Cambridge University created
a set of 11 rules for football in 1848. In 1863 the Football Association of England adopted most of these rules and added three more
Laws of the Game creating
association football. The varsity team played the first football match against Oxford in 1874, although intercollegiate football games date back earlier. During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Cambridge University students participated in and contributed to the development of many other sports including tennis, horse racing, boxing, cricket, and women's collegiate sport. and Oxford University in 1860. The Cambridge and Oxford Athletic Games were first held in 1864.
The Scottish Varsity match in
rugby union between the
University of St Andrews and the
University of Edinburgh began in the 1860s, the first varsity match in the world in a code of
football. The Oxford v Cambridge women's
University Match in
(field) hockey was first played in 1895, the oldest women's varsity match in the world. University sport began to be organised more formally in the early 20th century beginning with the formation of the Inter-Varsity Athletics Board of England and Wales (IVAB) and the first inter-varsity
track and field competition among nine universities at
Manchester University in 1919. Manchester University invited women's teams to compete against them in 1921, which initiated women's inter-varsity competition.
Birmingham University hosted the first Inter-Varsity Athletic Board Women's Championships in 1922 and the Women's Inter-Varsity Athletics Board (WIVAB) was formed in 1923. Multiple organisations subsequently represented university and college sport in the United Kingdom. the governing body for university and college sports in the UK. It runs competitions in 54 sports across over 160 universities and colleges; an annual championship and trophy in 16 sports; and an annual multi-sport even in 6 sports held over three days. More than 100,000 students compete in BUCS competitions and events each year and over 400 qualified for the FISU World University Games in 2025. The
FISU has described it as "one of the most well rounded and developed university sport programmes in the world". This includes widespread programmes in
university rowing in the United Kingdom. In addition,
Scottish Student Sport run over 100 events each year for
universities in Scotland including the annual multi-sport Scottish Student Games. Students at
universities in Northern Ireland can also participate in
Student Sport Ireland events.
United States University and college sport is a major enterprise in the United States, with more than 500,000
student athletes attending over 1,100 universities and colleges competing annually. The largest governing bodies are: •
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) •
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) •
National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). Among many other sports, the most-watched competitions are
American football and
basketball, though there are competitions in many other sports, including
badminton,
baseball,
softball,
ice hockey,
soccer,
rugby union,
volleyball,
lacrosse,
field hockey,
cricket,
handball,
swimming and diving,
track and field,
golf,
tennis,
table tennis,
pickleball,
rowing, and many others depending on the university. In the United States, college athletes are considered amateurs and their compensation is generally limited to
athletic scholarships. However, there is disagreement as to whether college student-athletes should be paid. College athletics have been criticized for diverting resources away from academic studies, while unpaid student athletes generate income for their universities and private entities. Due to the passage of
Title IX in the United States, universities must offer an equal number of scholarships for women and for men.
Competition between student clubs from different colleges, not organized by and therefore not representing the institutions or their faculties, may also be called "intercollegiate" athletics or simply college sports.
Vietnam Most Vietnamese universities have sports clubs and school teams and competitions is usually at the campus or city level. Students commonly play
association football,
basketball,
badminton,
volleyball,
table tennis and
track and field. Universities organize internal leagues or friendly matches between schools. These are usually run by student groups or university departments. == See also ==