| Abstract | The motivation for creating a new ERASMUS Thematic Network project was related to potential fundamental changes in the structure of the Higher Education sector because of the Bologna process. While these changes are clearly influencing the development of the sport science sector in Europe, their actual implementation in the educational system is particularly complex, heterogeneous and sometimes contradictory especially in the sport science sector. For
these reasons, the Bologna process strengthens the need of pooling together and capitalising on previous experience and developments made in the sector in order to fully support the process activated by the Bologna Declaration and to take into consideration all its implications. The project relates to the impact of the Bologna declaration on the “Alignment of
Educational Structures in the Sport Sector” by concentrating on two major foci of interest in the sport science sector. The first focus concerns the integration of the programmes and time frames of the educational structures; the second intends to ensure that the identified structures relate to the needs of the labour market. To achieve these, the generic and sector specific competences will be defined with the aid of the methodology set up in the frame of the Pilot Project
“Tuning Educational Structure in Europe”. For the two key aspects, the impact and the opportunities provided by ICT and e-learning facilities with specific adaptation to the sector will be analysed, compared and evaluated for further implementation at different levels. Given the complexity of what is called “sport and physical activity”, the project
focuses on four main areas in the sports science sector: Sport Management, Physical Education, Health and Fitness, Sport Coaching. These are the key areas in the environment of sport and physical activity both for their prevalence in
the educational and research offer and for the impact on the labour market.
The involvement of a significant number of partners from the new applicant countries will also allow that their educational systems - which have often been characterised by very different standards and structures in the sport sector -
could be incorporated in the European alignment but also bring a significant support with specific experience and practices to the new process. The target groups of the project are primarily European sport science students,
teachers and policy makers at universities and institutions dealing with education and research in the mentioned areas. Key employer organisations, groups and networks in the areas identified will also be involved in the data collection and implementation of the results: i.e. directors and institute managers, researchers, teachers, students, graduates, designers of curricula, managers of communication and information inside the institutions, and national and regional governments, national and international associations and confederations of sport organisations as well as workers' unions and associations of employers in the sector. |
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