KINESIOLOGY IN THE NAMES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The purpose of this research was to analyse the differences between and within the European and the USA departments, faculties or universities (N=980) which offer a degree in human movement science studies, according to their names. Eight hundred and fifty-eight (n=858) different university departments in the field of human movement study programmes from the United States of America and one hundred and twenty-two (n=122) departments from Europe were included. Using the Chi-square test, the following statistically significant differences between and within America and Europe were found. The terms used most frequently for human movement study programmes in the USA were health (n=261), physical education (n=172) and kinesiology (n=145). In Europe the most frequently used terms in the names of departments and faculties were sport (n=54) and physical education (n=29). The differences between the USA and Europe regarding the number and names of human movement study programmes are based on social, economic and historical differences between North America and Europe. The term kinesiology is rare in Europe but it is often in use in the USA. The authors consider the term kinesiology to be the most adequate name to identify the broad area of the human movement studies in the academic and scientific community.