EUSA’s very first educational gathering,
the inaugural EUSA Symposium, was set
to take place in 2001, with EUSA Execu-
tive Committee Member Mr Dinos Pavlou
from Cyprus spending much time and
effort organising the entire event. Yet due
to the tragic events in the United States
of America on September 11, 2001, it was
considered expedient in terms of delegate
safety to postpone the event until the fol-
lowing year.
The first EUSA Symposium was thus or-
ganised in April 2002 in Paralimni, Cyprus.
The main theme of the Symposium was
“Modern trends in European University
Sports”. Thirty participants from 12 uni-
versities attended this first edition of the
event to discuss the main topics and at
the same time participate in sport, social
and cultural activities.
In 2002, EUSA’s Executive Committee
decided to organise a one-day conference
to be held annually before the General
Assembly, which would offer parallel ses-
sions targeted at the political delegates
and the senior officers of the national
administration.
The first such conference with the topic
“Voluntarism in Sport” was held on De-
cember 5, 2002 in Nafplion, Greece. Sever-
al practices of voluntarism in major sport
events and organisations were presented
to the participants.The 2nd EUSA Symposium was held in
2003 in Crete, Greece, with 15 countries
and 43 delegates present. The four days
spent in Greece allowed the participants
to study some key areas of student sports,
with discussions focused on the relevance
of the Olympic Ideology in society, par-
ticularly student sports, under the theme
“Universities and Olympic Idea”.In 2004, 32 participants from eight coun-
tries participated in the 3rd EUSA Sympo-
sium that was organised by the Swedish
University Sports Federation in coopera-
tion with Dalarna University and the city of
Falun. The aim of the event was to deliver
a balanced mix of short keynote lectures,
workshops and sport and cultural activity
amongst participants.The 4th EUSA Symposium was held in
Funchal, Portugal from September 14 to
19, 2005. The event was organised by the
Madeira University in close collaboration
with the Portuguese University Sports
Federation. The EUSA Board decided to
organise the Symposium biannually in the
future.At the first meeting of the new Executive
Committee that took place in the Neth-
erlands in 2006, the first edition of the
EUSA Convention for the Organisers of the
European Universities Championships was
organised in Eindhoven, where 45 par-
ticipants, including representatives from
the European Universities Championships
Organising Committees, EUSA Technical1999-2009
Regular symposiums, seminars, conventions and conferences
allow for the facilitation of productive discussions where EUSA
members from across the continent can contribute by networking,
sharing best practices and learning from one another.