In 2015, the International University Sports Federation (FISU) proposed to UNESCO to internationally recognize a day dedicated to university sport. The proposal was endorsed by UNESCO’s Member States at the 38th session of the General Conference in Paris in November 2015, and 20 September was declared the International Day of University Sport. This date coincides in most countries around the world with the beginning of the academic year, and it is also the date of the first Student World Championships in 1924.

By devoting one day a year to universities and sport for citizens, the International University Sports Federation (FISU), made up of 167 national university sport federations representing several hundred higher education establishments, aims to draw attention to the key role universities can and must play in order to rise to the challenges of the day, in terms of the acquisition and transmission of knowledge as well as, and above all, social and economic policy at the local, national and international levels.