OLL’s Cooper Test for high-quality university sports will take place on the Exercise Day of Your Dreams

OLL's Cooper Test is part of the Exercise Day of Your Dreams, a joint event organised by the sports sector. The Federation also wants to emphasise the important role that university sports play in getting students to be physically active.

“Our dream is for students to exercise enough in terms of their health and wellbeing. In order to achieve this goal, we are lobbying for the development of accessible and high-quality university sports,” OLL President Essi Lumme says.

According to the health survey (KOTT) carried out last year, more than two thirds of university students sit more than 10 hours a day. The Student Barometer carried out in the spring also found that students would like more physical activity in their studies and on campus, mainly through teaching practises and equipment that increase activity and reduce sitting.

In the upcoming parliamentary election, OLL will lobby for continued funding and development of Universities on the Move. The Federation will also promote a larger role for physical activity within university funding.

“In the Universities on the Move project, the universities create an active culture and increase physical activity in a way that suits them, and they increase physical activity both within the traditional sports services and during the daily studies,” President Lumme explains.

“As things currently stand, the universities are required to offer sports services, but the laws and regulations don’t make any mention of the quality or amount of these services. This puts the students at different universities and campuses in an unequal position. There needs to be forms of funding available that encourage universities to improve the quality of and equality within university sports.

OLL also sees it as important to strengthen the legal position of university sports and students. As an example, the Act on the Promotion of Sports and Physical Activity should include an entry on promoting physical activity among students, and it should be ensured that university sports have the same opportunities as other sports organisations to apply for and be granted financial support for their work. The Finnish model for leisure activities should also be extended to include secondary and university students.