Due to the increasing enrolment in universities and their role as a hub for lifelong participation in sports, the improvement of the sports life of university students is now positioned as an important issue. A review of previous studies on the sports life of university students identified the following issues: the existence of a quarter of Non-exercisers, half of those who are members of an athletic club exercise six or more days a week, and half of those who are members of a circle use off-campus facilities and bear the financial and time costs. However, no studies have examined these issues according to the characteristics of the university or department to which the students belong. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to examine the sports life of students according to the characteristics of their universities and faculties, and to clarify the details of their actual conditions and issues.
A questionnaire survey was conducted at 41 universities across the country, asking questions about current exercise frequency, barriers to exercise, current exercise status, and venues and costs of activity. The participants were categorized by athletic environment into “Members of an athletic club”, “Members of a circle”, “Other exercisers” and “Non-exercisers”. Further analysis was conducted based on three characteristics: the “Establisher”, “University size”, and “Faculty”.
As a result of the analysis, the following four points were identified as the actual conditions and issues in the sports life of university students.
1: Non-exercisers are most common among students at large universities, public universities, and general faculties.
2: There was a high frequency of physical education and sports department activities at medium and small universities.
3: Circle students at large universities and private universities do not have access to on-campus facilities, and the cost of their activities is high.
4: Students at small universities, public universities and general faculties feel that they do not have the opportunity to exercise.
