GIH is a public institution reporting directly to the Government. GIH confers degrees in all three cycles in the area of Health and Sports. Under the Vice-Chancellor, GIH is organized with one academic department that consists of three units. Coordination of programs across the three units is provided by Faculty Programme Directors (FPD). All administrative staff is organized in the Administration. A Programme Committee is responsible for the first and second cycle programs and courses, and a Research and Post Graduate Studies Committee has similar responsibilities in these fields.
All units also are responsible for international cooperation and mobility issues within their competencies. The Student Union has taken on mentoring responsibilities. Internationalization activities are coordinated through the International Office. It combines academic and administrative competencies.
Partner institutions are chosen according to the priorities outlined in the internationalization strategy. The Vice-Chancellor of GIH is responsible for signing the inter-institutional agreement. Faculty Programme Directors (FDPs) are responsible for the planning of the curricula and courses. A relevant FDP will, within his/her area of competence, process learning agreements for outgoing and incoming students.
FDPs will have to ensure that courses given to incoming students are relevant for the agreed learning outcomes. The Learning Agreements will also include what courses are to be credited upon completing the studies abroad for outgoing students. In this, the FDP will have to obtain binding obligations from the teachers grading the respective courses.
GIH is the only independent specialist college in Sweden. Its missions are to conduct training and research in sport, physical activity, and health. Research at GIH explores sports sciences issues with different starting points, human biology, humanities, and social sciences. The research at GIH often requires a multidisciplinary approach, in which various lines of research are mutually supportive. GIH benefits from the presence of multiple scientific disciplines since research is conducted both in human biology and humanities and social sciences. The research at GIH is organized in three different areas:
- Culture and learning
- Performance and training
- Physical activity and health
GIH aims to be a natural partner for collaboration to both Europe and foreign higher education institutions that carry out high-quality research and education within the area of physical activity, sports, and health. The reference frames will be widened through international contacts and collaboration for students, teachers, and researchers. The international perspectives will also contribute to the understanding of other cultures. To allow for broadened capability among researchers to communicate in languages other than Swedish, GIH also enables teachers and students from foreign countries.
