In Norway, several national sport federations and regional confederations have encouraged their employees and representatives to participate in the course.
Reaction from the Norwegian sport movement
The Norwegian Football Federation has developed a hybrid model: In addition to enrolling 40 employees and voluntary leaders into the online course, they organized 3 seminars where the “study class” met, exchanged ideas and discussed how they can collectively improve. The federation plans to leverage this group for its future work with sustainability. Through the enhanced competencies of the people within the federation, the sustainability strategy will be strengthened, e.g. through contributing action plans on sustainability.
Several federations have followed suit. The sport organizations that organize hybrid models, received help and academic input from the academics responsible for the courses, Professor Dag Vidar Hanstad and Assoc. Professor Anna-Maria Strittmatter.
It goes without saying that many of the practitioners enrolled in this course already possess higher education. However, the course on sustainability provides new knowledge that will be increasingly significant for society as a whole. Sport organizations are also key actors in today's society and in the future.
We encourage sport federations and clubs from other countries to follow and take advantage of broadening their knowledge on this important topic.
Study Sport and sustainability at NIH
With the launch of online digital courses in English, students can access the free education offered by the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences anywhere in the world. NIH is one of the most prolific institutions currently ranked 2nd in the 2021 ShanghaiRanking's global ranking of sports science colleges.
Beginning in May 2022, 30 students will take the English version, and 212 students will take the Norwegian version.
The Sport and sustainability course gave a lot of beneficial information of sustainability issues in sports. For example, how we are continuously developing sports to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable, and what has already been taken care of. The course gave important and current information, which is beneficial for everyone in sport sciences studies. Thank you for the course. I actually got an email yesterday about this course from my home university in Finland, and they really recommended this course for our university students.
The main aim is to gain knowledge about sustainability and its relevance for sport organizations and their stakeholders. The course provides insights into relevant theories and how they can be applied in the analysis of issues and challenges connected to sustainability and sport.
The course is based on interdisciplinary themes in order to grasp the various approaches to sustainability. Thus, the content is created with input from professors and senior lecturers in sport management, sociology, economics, and philosophy.
The people taking the course have different backgrounds. A large number of students are sport students from other universities in the world that appreciate taking a course that their own university does not offer. However, we also had a representative from an international sport federation enrolled and received interest in the course from a football club in the English Premier League. That is great and shows that the course has relevance for the sports industry.
Thus, the course is suitable for everyone who wants to gain a better understanding of sustainable development, as well as people who are performing various roles within sport organizations, public administration, private sector, and schools.
A unique opportunity for students in this course is to appreciate different perspectives on sustainability and its application in various parts of the world. Even though this course is entirely online, students gain an understanding of themselves and possibly get to know each other during the introductory phase. Our program offers unique experiences for all students, regardless of culture, through knowledge of sport and sustainability implemented in practice.