Frenchman Jean Petitjean, and later the Confédération Internationale des Étudiants (CIE), was the first to build a series of international university games, beginning with the 1923 International Universities Championships. This was followed by the renamed 1924 Summer Student World Championships with two further games in 1927 and 1928. Another name change resulted in the 1930 International University Games. The CIE’s International University Games were held four more times in the 1930s before having its final event in 1947.
Alternative university games principally catering for Eastern European countries were organized in 1939 in Vienna, in post-Anschluss Germany. World War II had ceased all major international student sport, and the aftermath led to division among the movement, the CIE was disbanded, and rival organizations emerged. The Union Internationale des Étudiants (UIE) incorporated a university sports games into the World Festival of Youth and Students from 1947 to 1962, including one separate, unofficial games in 1954.
The Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) was founded in 1949, replacing the CIE, and eventually combined both events into the World University Games in the 1959 Universiade.
