Within the DiscoverU (Discovering university sport and supporting dual career) project, co-founded by the European Union, a webinar on the topic of Dual Career was hosted on 22^nd of April 2024.

The webinar was done as part of EAS Café, this  time joined by EUSA on the topic of Unviersity Sports - From Active Lifestyles to Dual career. 

The meeting was hosted by the European University Sports Association (EUSA) and the EUSA Institute, and was attended by around 90 participants, representatives of the partners, national university sport bodies and universities.

The DiscoverU project mainly aim to improve sport and physical activity opportunities for students in higher education on one hand, addressing larger student population; and at the same time promote and support dual career in higher education in partnering countries.

The webinar was opened by Mr Andrej Pisl, EUSA Project and Policy Manager that briefly presented the different speakers and the main of the project.

Content of the webinar kicked off with a presentation of Ms Filipa Godinho, Pro-Rector of University of Coimbra who started as the introduction of the EUG Games in Coimbra in 2018 with some important numbers of this event. Then, she related the impact of the European Universities Games 2018 on the development of the strategy of the university to help students in the dual-career process, explaining the impac on  three different category profiles of students-athletes that benefit of the different support by the university. Ms Godinho gave a detailed explanation between the different categories and different level of support devoted to each profile of student-athletes. 

Next, the webinar continued with the presentation of Ms Marianna Pikul representative of the International Affairs department of University Sports Association of Poland – AZS. She focused on the structure of AZS and the diverse events organized by the association mixing different population as children, students, or individuals part of different sports clubs. She finished presenting the different support that the organization provides to encourage the professional athletes to continue their studies. Ms Pikul mentioned various athletes that used the opportunity of dual carreer to manage great results both in their sports careers and in their professional academic journeys. 

Mr Maté Nagyistok and Mr Lszlo Végh, Project Managers of the EUG 2024, were presenting on behalf of the Hungarian University Sports Federation (MEFS), presenting about the dual carreer aproach in the federation, as well as the European Unviersities Games 2024 to be held in Debrece and Miskolc in July. Mr Nagyistok gave details of the program for students, through which they could get a suppot by the universities to help them in their sport carreer such as a support system, provided sports scholarships and free housing. He also elaborated on the trial career model, that coordinate sports, studies, and work.

In continuation Mr Végh presented the dual career aspect related to the European Universities Games taking place in Miskolc and Debrecen. He was focusing on the communication campaign and the slogan "More than Games" refering mainly that the event itself is about more than sports, with the aspect of dual careeer present in the lifes of the main actors of the event, the student-athletes. In the main campaign of EUG  2024, Mr Vegh  especially pointed out the engagement of the ambassadors that are student-athletes, speaking about the great way of combining their sporting careers and academic life. 

After the contribution of the presenters, a discussion followed in form of a round table of speakers, also inviting the participants to ask questions and take part in the debate. The discussion involved questions related to the dual career systems of all of the presnted counties and entities, the additional stakeholders involved in the support system of dual career programs, and ideas for further future development of it. 

To conclude the webinar, Mr Rajmund Tomik addressed the present participants with the invitation of the 2024 EAS Activities and Annual Conference to be held in Katowice, Poland from 1-3 of October. Having the conference in the European City of Science in 2024, is a special opportunity to highlight the contribution of dual career of sportspersons to the advancement of a European culture in and through sports on all aspects of life. The Conference will be dedicated to “Dual career at school and university – innovative bridges between sport and education”. 

More details about the conference, can be found on https://eas24.awf.katowice.pl . More details about the DiscoverU project can be found on https://discoveru.eusa.eu/ and for more information regarding Dual Career, you can visit https://www.dualcareer.eu/