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New Project at Sofia University to Stimulate Sports Amongst Students

The Te(a)chIn Sport Project, financed by the Erasmus + SPORT at the EC Program, was launched with Sofia University being a leading institution in it. The project was presented at a conference held at Alma mater. Its objective was to stimulate the practising of sports on a large scale byamongst students and youngsters, to enhance their informational awareness, the use of new technologies and their participation in volunteers’ initiatives.

The project was presented at a conference organized by the Department of Sports at Sofia university and was attended by project partners: Vienna University (Austria), University of Western Hungary (Hungary), Shtip University “Gotse Delchev” (Macedonia), the Youth Foundation for Science and Business (Estonia) and the Krefjandi Association for Cooperation in the Domains of Research and Innovations (Iceland). The overall project budget amounts to € 452 000. The project was launched on January 1, 2017 and is for a period of 2 years.

The opening of the conference was attended by Professor Reneta Bozhankova, Vice-rector of Sofia University, Mr Pavel Ivanov from the Sofia Municipality Prevention, Integration, Sports and Tourism Directorate, Mr Todor Shabanski, Press Attaché at the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, representatives from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, sports federations, the Technical University, faculty, students and guests.

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The event was opened by Professor Dr Angelina Yaneva, Director of the Department of Sports at Sofia University, who expressed her deep satisfaction of the fact that the Erasmus + SPORT Project of the European Commission was the first project in this country whereby Sofia University had a leading part to play. Professor Yaneva pointed out that the success was due both to the cooperation of the project partners, hence our gratitude to them, and to the active participation of the colleagues from the Department of Sports at the University.

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Professor Reneta Bozhankova welcomed the participants to Sofia University on behalf of the Rector, Professor Anastas Gerdzhikov. “We are very glad that the Department of Sports, together with so many enthusiastic and venerable universities and faculty working in the domain of sports, have succeeded in winning such a wonderful project of the Erasmus+ and to continue from then on their successful work for the implementation of the working program,” Professor Bozhankova added.

She expressed her confidence that that first working meeting with the partners would be the beginning of a friendship that would lead them in the years of work on the project to the benefit of the universities, the students and the welfare of the societies they represented.

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“We all bear the responsibility for the young people. We are all doing our best so that they are healthy and happy,“ the Vice-rector added and wished fruitful work and successful realization of a long-lasting partnership.

The project’s international coordinator Kristiana Kazandjieva presented the project and pointed out that when work on it is about to start, at the Department of Sports at Sofia University it had been recorded that Bulgarian students had gone in less and less for sports and also have a lower level of physical culture. In her words, sports, apart from health, gives an opportunity to the young people to get a better realization in life after graduation.

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Due to that reason the project’s team decided to accentuate on improving the motivation for sports of the Bulgarian students and stimulating physical activities, thus strengthening health. Kristiana Kazandjieva stressed that the project’s aims are introducing new technologies in the teaching of sports to students. The project’s pivotal idea focusses on three venues: the use at Sofia University of special innovative mechanisms, the exchange of experience and good practices for the motivation of students, and the organization of sporting events.

Kristiana Kazandjieva noted that the factors influencing the motivation of students are of two types: social, which include the quality of the sports syllabus, the professional level of the faculty, the training equipment at the universities, and the personal factors – the physical state, the time for sports, and the personal motivation.

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The project envisages the implementation of a sport innovation that resembles a mobile consultant for movement constructed at Vienna University under the supervision of Professor Arnold Batsa. The target groups are students and youngsters, coaches and sports faculty, and volunteers. They are expected to use wireless sensors that will test the way young people are engaged into sports. The sensors are connected with an application of the smart phones of those engaged in sports and transmit information to a server; the information is to be analyzed in real time and will be returned to the active sportsmen to advise them what strategy they should opt for at the time of their training sessions. In Ms Kazandjieva’s words, in this way they will have a mobile movement coach. By means of the results yielded by that sport innovation the project’s team will analyze how it bolsters up the motivation for sports.

The project’s program envisages the organization of meetings and seminars in each of the partners’ organizations so that both faculty and students participating in the project will exchange experience and have access to direct information. For the students the advantages will be more strength, power of endurance, speed, a better physical activity and culture, whereas for faculty that will include the possibility to set up such a model for a sports program that guarantees the students’ motivation for physical activities and sports.

During the next two years three sporting events will be organized: in Reykjavik, Shtip and Sofia, as well as a number of international workshops. A students’ campaign under the motto of “Activate me!” is envisaged wherein students from all universities will present sports activities development projects. At the end of the project sports calendars will be compiled which will record the best projects.

In each country-participant a seminar will be held dedicated to current and relevant topics related to sports. In Shtip the topic will focus on the volunteers’ activities, in Reykjavik – on the procurement of funding for sports activities, in Hungary – on the organization of big sporting events, in Tallinn – on the activities of the public organizations (municipalities, regional administrations, ministries, etc., in Vienna – on the sports innovations. The concluding conference that is to be held in Sofia will report the project’s final results.