The World University Championships are held in even-numbered years between the Summer and Winter Universiades. 

Organisers give cities and universities the opportunity to host international sports events with minimum cost and complexity as they are planned as single-sport competitions.

“We had a good week evaluating the bids presented in Lausanne last week,” said FISU World University Championships director Paulo Ferreira. 

“The level was exceptional in all senses with over 75 representatives from 34 bidding committees representing FISU member associations from America, Africa, Europe and Asia.”

In total, 27 events were proposed which included 25 single-sport events and two newly formed "cluster" events, namely a collection of mind games and combat sports where all the events would take place in a single location and happen concurrently.

The Portuguese Academic Federation of University Sport (FADU) presented four bids for the 2020 season. 

“Portugal has a great history of organising international events,” FADU President Daniel Monteiro said. 

“We’ve organized 12 editions of the World University Championships. 

"We come here with great hopes and expectations to host more.”

Following up on the success of the Summer Universiade in August, Chinese Taipei's city of Taichung was in Lausanne vying for the rights to host the World University Golf Championships in 2020.

“We have five golf courses at the international standard in our city,” said Taichung’s Sport Bureau general director Wang Ching-Tang. 

“We hope we have the chance to host the World University Championships in 2020 as we see this event as part of our plan to become an international sport city.”

Cheerleading will be seen for the first time as part of the World University Championship calendar during the 2018 event in Lodz, Poland.

A delegation from Wonju, South Korea, presented a strong candidature to host the second edition of the event in 2020.

The city currently hosts the Wonju Danamic Dancing Carnival and sees hosting the WUC as the next step to advance the sport within the region. 

“Our city has a passion for cheerleading," Wonju Mayor Won Changmuk said. 

"This energy will make for great memories to the participants.” 

During the next month the WUC department will work with the International Technical Committee (CTI) chairman Marian Dymalski and CTI vice-chairman Fernando Parente, who were both in Lausanne for the presentations.

They will make the proposal to the FISU's Executive Committee for the decision on attributing the 2020 World University Championship events. 

Candidate cities will be informed in December whether their bids to host a World University Championship event were successful.

“Across the board, the candidates presented compelling reasons why they were ready to put on high-quality events that expand the role and reach of university sport around the globe,” added Ferreira.

“Overall the outcome is positive and we will for sure have a high-level programme for the 2020 season.”