Building a Movement for Healthier University Life – Meet Keynote Speaker Michelle Tanner

At the FISU World Forum 2026 in Östersund, Michelle Tanner will challenge universities to take a more proactive approach to student health and wellbeing. As Director of Sport and Physical Activity at Trinity College Dublin and Vice Chair of the FISU Gender Equality Committee, she believes lasting change begins with a shared institutional commitment — and a collective movement to make healthy campuses everyone’s responsibility.

Michelle Tanner is Director of Sport and Physical Activity at Trinity College Dublin, where she leads the strategic development of sport facilities, programmes and services for students and the wider community.

She is a founding member of the Healthy Trinity initiative and has led international projects focusing on the role of sport and physical activity in supporting students’ physical and mental wellbeing.

Michelle also serves as Vice Chair of the FISU Gender Equality Committee and is a board member of Sport Ireland, contributing to sport development and policy at national and international levels.

At the FISU World Forum 2026, she will share perspectives on the role of sport in creating healthier and more inclusive university environments.

What is the one key message you hope participants will take away from your keynote in Östersund?
I hope that the participants will appreciate the impact and importance of a Healthy Campus on University Life at institutional, national and global levels, if they were not already aware, but ultimately,  I hope the presentation sparks participants to be more proactive in the promotion of health and physical activity in their organizations, that would be amazing. 

In your view, what is the biggest challenge universities face today when it comes to promoting student health, wellbeing and physical activity?
The obvious answer is funding and resources,  with most universities face competing challenges to fund and resource various areas and priorities, however in my experience, the biggest challenge is to get institutional commitment to develop and implement a shared vision for the promotion of health, wellbeing and physical activity for students and our campus communities. Achieving that can be complex, frustrating and time consuming, requiring resilience and persistence, and some very committed and passionate people but once you have that, the funding and resources follow. 

Can you share an example of a university, organisation or initiative that is making a real difference and could inspire others around the world?
I am most proud of the Trinity led Mind Body Boost project, which is a mental and physical health intervention project for students. This collaborative project emerged from a brainstorming between my colleagues from the mental health service and sports department in my university and grew into a European wide project, which attracted Erasmus + Sport funding.  It has produced a tried and tested set of tools for the delivery on a 6-week intervention programme that has had powerful transformative impact on students who were disengaged and experiencing low levels of physical activity and low self esteem. It has been received very positively across many campuses in Europe over the last few years.  My colleague and I will showcase this project at the Poster event at the FISU Forum this year. We welcome all enquiries about it. 

If every participant could leave the Forum and make one change at their university, what would you like that change to be?
Let’s create a movement…to have the confidence to advocate within their institutions for programmes and initiatives that they believe will impact students health and wellbeing for the better. A collective effort is far greater than what any individual can achieve, ownership of a healthy campus is everyone’s responsibility, let it belong to us all, create the movement and go for it! 

What are you most looking forward to experiencing in Östersund and at the FISU World Forum?
I look forward mostly to meeting colleagues from across the FISU network and sharing experiences! We are always learning, and we have so much to learn from each other, including the more experienced (older) ones!  I am also looking forward to experiencing the Swedish culture.  Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it all.