Promoting dual careers at higher education institutions: 31 benefits ranked by the project Student Athletes Erasmus+ Mobility in Europe (SAMEurope)
Journal article, 2024
Methods: The purpose of the study was to rank these benefits by combining the perspectives of the university staff and the student athletes from each university in the consortium. The university staff included experts from sports services and the international relations office. A questionnaire was also sent to the dual-career athletes enrolled at the consortium's universities. Of the 514 dual-career athletes, 208 (116 women) completed the questionnaire. The overall response rate was 40.47%. The university staff assessed the importance of each benefit, how easy it was to implement at the institution, and whether or not the university offered the benefit to its students. The dual-career students rated each of the 31 benefits and indicated whether or not they had used them. A specific methodology was designed to rank these benefits using the ratings of the university staff and the student athletes. Intra-group and inter-group Pearson correlations were performed.
Results: The results show a strong and significant correlation between the benefits from the perspective of the university staff (r = 0.710, p = 7.76E-7) and from the perspective of the students (r = 0.715, p = 2.44E-6). The correlation is moderate and significant when the benefits are correlated from the perspective of the two groups as a whole (0.363, p = 0.045), with the three most important benefits being the free use of sports facilities, justification for absences, and the adaptation of the pace of studies.
Discussion: The study makes visible the commitment of higher education institutions to facilitating the dual career of student athletes and identifies those benefits that may be of greater interest to European universities as a whole. The European perspective has been considered, while respecting the specificities of each university and the country in which it is located.
elite sport
dual career
SAMEurope
benefits
athletes
universities
Author
Carlos Hernando Domingo
Universidad Jaume I
Marta Renau Michavila
Universidad Jaume I
Per Thorén
Utbildningsstöd
Johan Bankel
Utbildningsstöd
Magnus Karlsteen
Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics
Sami Kalaja
University of Jyväskylä
Minna Rasinaho
University of Jyväskylä
Aki Karjalainen
University of Jyväskylä
Swantje Scharenberg
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Pascale Kohler
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Florian Agneray
Institut National des Sciences Appliquees de Lyon
Alexia Deflon
Institut National des Sciences Appliquees de Lyon
Dorothée Brac de la Perriere
Institut National des Sciences Appliquees de Lyon
María Pilar Marín Gil
Universidad Jaume I
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
26249367 (eISSN)
Vol. 6 1407194Subject Categories
Educational Sciences
DOI
10.3389/fspor.2024.1407194