Journal: Region - Educational Research and Reviews DOI: 10.32629/rerr.v8i6.5542
Abstract
Since the 2020 turn toward sports-education integration, and especially since revised admission rules took effect in 2024, universities hosting high-level sports teams have found their operating model under strain. The difficulty stems less from insufficient effort than from an unresolved institutional identity: the team must serve competitive performance, campus sports culture, and the national talent pipeline at once, while its structure and evaluation criteria were designed for a narrower purpose. Four predicaments follow—narrowed intake, ownerless governance, unmanaged role conflict, and coaching whose advancement is loosely coupled to its work. Pathways follow, centred on programmatic focus, articulation with schools and clubs, curricular use of athletic expertise, professionalized coaching posts, and evaluation that reads process alongside results.
Keywords
sports-education integration; high-level sports teams; higher education; dual career; student-athletes; governance
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[2] Song B, et al. The evolution of Chinese high-performance student-athletes' admission, cultivation and management policies[J/OL]. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 2024, 16(1): 151-175.
[3] Peng Q, et al. The new hope of Chinese football? Youth football reforms and policy conflicts in the implementation process[J/OL]. European Sport Management Quarterly, 2023, 23(6): 1928-1950.
[4] Izzicupo P, et al. Exploring dual career quality implementation at European higher education institutions: insights from university experts[J/OL]. PLoS One, 2022, 17(11): e0277485.
[5] Woolf J, et al. Role conflict of Chinese student-athletes: distinct challenges they face and implications for collegiate sport administrators[J/OL]. Journal of Global Sport Management, 2024, 9(1): 113-131.
[6] Jiang X Y, Wang K. Exploring relationships between identities, dual career competency, and burnout among young talented athletes[J/OL]. BMC Psychology, 2025,13(1): 190.
[7] Capranica L, et al. Understanding dual career views of European university athletes: The more than gold project focus groups[J/OL]. PLoS One, 2022, 17(2): e0264175.
[8] Stambulova N, et al. FEPSAC position statement: Athletes' dual careers in the European context[J/OL]. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 2024,71: 102572.
[9] Hagiwara G, et al. Competencies that Japanese collegiate sports coaches require for dual-career support for student athletes[J/OL]. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022,19(18): 11503.
[10] Linnér L, et al. In pursuit of dual career excellence: factors associated to satisfaction of Swedish university student-athletes[J/OL]. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2026, 24(1): 121-135.
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