"More than gold" Guidelines to promote the dual career of athletes-students: manual for authorities

In fact, an exponential interest in sport dual career both in academic and political fields is gaining its visibility. The European Commission (2012) defined the Dual career as the conciliation between education and sports. A well-balanced dual career can help to maximize the contribution of athletes to society, building on the capabilities athletes have developed during their careers, and can be seen as good preparation for becoming potential role models in society. Students often face challenges to combine their educational activities with sport. Naturally, the aim to succeed at the highest level of a sport demands intensive training/competitions, which can be difficult to reconcile with the challenges and restrictions in the educational system and the labor market (European Commission, 2012).

Nevertheless, the student-athlete definition is differently used between European countries. Naturally, this fact enhances the existence of very different policies with regard to the support that is given to these athletes by governmental structures, but above all by higher education institutions. Despite the exponential interest in this topic, as we have previously reported, the existence of national policies to support student athletes is not yet a reality in all member states of the European Commission and clear terminology and interpretation across Europe for this new policy domain is an urgent need. Additionally, those policies should respect cultural diversity. There is also an appeal to national authorities to develop culturally and country-specific guidelines for dual career that would take into account the Guidelines but also the specificities of the national education systems and sports (European Commission, 2016; Geraniosova & Ronkainen 2015). The European Union Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes (European Commission, 2012) provided a minimal standard of facilitators and conditions for athletes in member state countries and contributed to research in dual career development at a national level (Li & Sum, 2017).

A review of policy and practice in higher education in European Union Member States concerning elite athletes identified four positions: (1) state-centric provision, (2) the state formally via free access connecting educational and sport bodies, (3) national sport organizations directly contacting educational bodies, and (4) no formal structures (Aquilina & Henry, 2010). On the other hand, Caput- Jogunica and colleagues (2012) analyzed the role of higher education institutions in athletes’ dual career across the European Union. The authors highlighted some specific practices in Europe such as admission of Olympic athletes to any university or college without entrance examination, scholarships for athletes on the Olympic list, annual scholarships, and The Talented Scholarship Scheme. Additionally, the authors emphasized that the development of dual career support systems was at different levels between European Union members and underlined the importance of flexibility in studies for a successful dual career (Geraniosova & Ronkainen 2015).

This is well established that the opportunity to combine sports and education increases the motivation to pursue a professional and sports career, facilitates the life transitions and improves the life quality of the athlete (European Commission, 2016). Nerveless, although sports participation is strongly encouraged, young athletes have severe difficulties in making sports compatible with educational requirements and the available scientific evidence reveals that the European athletes tend to abandon sport and prioritize education in order to prepare for future job opportunities or, in opposite situations, to abandon academic training because of competition, economic resources or lack of support through the dual career (Fernandes, Moreira & Gonçalves, 2019).

The available literature showed that there is no uniformity in the application and development of the dual career in all member states of the European Union and that some countries are still not interested in the development of the European Commission guidelines. In this sense, there is an urgent need to share good practices between the European countries in order to harmonize the dual career strategies.

Thus, this document will present a set of strategies that are currently being developed in a set of higher education institutions from different countries of the European Union and that may constitute a reference of general application for the generalities of the institutions of the member states.