Students' Participation in College Sports: Developing a Sustainable Framework

Xiwen Zeng

European Journal of Education Science, 2026, vol. 2, issue 1, 127-138

Abstract: Student participation in university sports is fundamentally important for promoting adolescents' physical and mental health, cultivating a lifelong sports awareness, and building a sporting powerhouse alongside a healthy nation. This paper systematically reviews domestic and international research from the past five years on student sports participation, university sports development, core competency cultivation, and sustainable development frameworks. Specifically, it analyzes five critical dimensions: theoretical foundations, concept definitions, influencing factors, framework construction, and promotion strategies. The comprehensive findings indicate that current research predominantly focuses on core competency cultivation, campus sports culture construction, extracurricular sports activities organization, educational ecology optimization, and the seamless integration of sports and education. However, existing research still faces significant problems, such as scattered theoretical foundations, insufficient depth in empirical studies, and a notable lack of systematic sustainable development frameworks that can be universally applied across different educational contexts. Based on these identified gaps, this paper constructs a novel student-centered, core-competency-oriented, and multi-party collaborative sustainable development framework. Furthermore, it proposes multiple actionable promotion strategies, including robust policy guarantees, proactive school leadership, extensive social participation, and enhanced individual initiative. Ultimately, this comprehensive review aims to provide a solid theoretical reference and actionable practical guidance for the high-quality, sustainable development of university sports programs globally, ensuring long-term benefits for student well-being.

Keywords: student participation; university sports; sustainable development; core competencies; educational ecology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dba:ejesaa:v:2:y:2026:i:1:p:127-138

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