Dissertation (MA Education)The study was on university students' participation in sports and its implications on academic performances. The study had four following objectives; firstly to explore rationale of introducing sports among university students, secondly to investigate the perceptions of university about participation in sports ,thirdly to find out the extents to which university students participate in sports and lastly to establish contributions of students‟ participation in sports on academic performances. The study was conducted in selected universities in Dodoma, Kilimajaro and Arusha region.In addition the current study was built around the Astins‟(1984) Theory of Student Involvement and Drive theory in sports psychology by Hull (1943).Moreover the study employed mixed approach both quantitative and qualitative approach under descriptive survey design and methods. Besides the study used questionnaire, interview schedule as well as likert scale for collecting data. The sample of the study included, 200 university students, 2 deans of students and 4 college sports tutors. Random sampling and purposive sampling strategies were used during the study. These two sampling strategies were employed for selecting the university students as well as college sports tutors and deans of students. The study mainly found the followings: firstly, it was reported that sports in the university were introduced for positive academic achievements to university students‟ welfare. The responses from university students, college sports tutors and deans of students affirmed that sports in the university plays an important role in fostering students‟ mindset career, for socializations, to maintain disciplinary actions, in attaining good health and sports is for academic wellbeing of students. Secondly the responses from the university students, college sports tutors and dean of students obtained through interviews and questionnaires exposed that majority of the university students had positive perception on participating in sports. They recognize many positive benefits of participation in sports that involving in sports was associated with a range of physical, emotional, social, educational and other benefits. Thirdly, it was found for the third research objective that, about 65% of the respondents were reported that they frequently participated in various forms of sports ranging from indoors to outdoor ones. However the extent of participation differed from one university to another depending on the facilities available, thus some had few facilities like grounds, balls and stretched studying timetable. Lastly the findings from the fourth research objective of the study revealed that, participation in sports contributes to academic performances. In fact it was discovered that academic learning and sports participation were complements to each other as it was revealed that students who participate in sports performed better academically than those who did not participate in sports. Finally the study provided recommendations in terms of improving policies, practices as well as furthering research in the studied area.