With all other disciplines having been cancelled, the 1975 Summer Universiade only featured athletics events and was referred to as the World University Championships in athletics.^[1] The competition was held in Rome between 18 and 21 September.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: 0.0 m/s) details	Pietro Mennea (ITA)	10.28 GR	Charles Hopkins (USA)	10.47	Toma Petrescu (ROM)	10.66
200 metres (wind: 0.0 m/s) details	Pietro Mennea (ITA)	20.28	Robert Martin (CAN)	21.06	Thorsten Johansson (SWE)	21.15
400 metres details	Jerzy Pietrzyk (POL)	46.26	Roger Jenkins (GBR)	46.55	Brian Saunders (CAN)	46.83
800 metres details	Waldemar Gondek (POL)	1:50.04	Pavel Litovchenko (URS)	1:50.13	Sid Ali Djouadi (ALG)	1:50.19
1500 metres details	Thomas Wessinghage (FRG)	3:39.73	Steve Heidenreich (USA)	3:40.56	Gheorghe Ghipu (ROM)	3:41.19
5000 metres details	Franco Fava (ITA)	13:37.56	Ilie Floroiu (ROM)	13:39.20	Julian Goater (GBR)	13:42.02
10,000 metres details	Franco Fava (ITA)	28:37.92	Ilie Floroiu (ROM)	28:52.49	Jim Brown (GBR)	29:03.54
110 metres hurdles (wind: 0.0 m/s) details	Charles Foster (USA)	13.83	Eduard Pereverzev (URS)	13.94	Borisav Pisić (YUG)	14.28
400 metres hurdles details	Rolf Ziegler (FRG)	50.43	Jerzy Hewelt (POL)	50.85	Timo Ogunjimi (NGR)	51.25
3000 metres steeplechase details	Bronisław Malinowski (POL)	8:22.32	Michael Karst (FRG)	8:28.22	Kazimierz Maranda (POL)	8:29.23
4 × 100 metres relay details	Soviet Union (URS) Nikolay Kolesnikov Juris Silovs Sergey Vladimirtsev Aleksandr Zhidkikh	39.80	Canada (CAN) Marvin Nash Albin Dukowski Robert Martin Brian Sanders	40.06	West Germany (FRG) Klaus-Dieter Bieler Klaus Ehl Reinhard Borchert Dieter Steinmann	40.20
4 × 400 metres relay details	Poland (POL) Waldemar Szlendak Jerzy Pietrzyk Jerzy Hewelt Waldemar Gondek	3:09.13	Yugoslavia (YUG) Milorad Čikić Ivica Ivičak Milorad Savić Dragan Životić	3:09.71	Soviet Union (URS) Vladimir Nosenko Pavel Kozban Nikolay Yavtushenko Aleksandr Bratchikov	3:10.09
High jump details	Enzo del Forno (ITA)	2.13	István Major (HUN)	2.13	Danial Temim (YUG)	2.13
Pole vault details	François Tracanelli (FRA)	5.20	Bruce Simpson (CAN)	5.20	Renato Dionisi (ITA)	5.10
Long jump details	Grzegorz Cybulski (POL)	8.27 GR	Nenad Stekić (YUG)	8.13	Aleksey Pereverzev (URS)	7.90
Triple jump details	Michał Joachimowski (POL)	16.54	Anatoliy Piskulin (URS)	16.52	Sergey Sidorenko (URS)	16.42
Shot put details	Bishop Dolegiewicz (CAN)	19.45	Anatoliy Yarosh (URS)	19.11	Valcho Stoev (BUL)	18.90
Discus throw details	Markku Tuokko (FIN)	62.94	Ferenc Tégla (HUN)	58.10	Igor Spasovkhodskiy (URS)	57.80
Hammer throw details	Aleksey Spiridonov (URS)	73.82	Walter Schmidt (FRG)	72.00	Yuriy Sedykh (URS)	71.32
Javelin throw details	Gheorghe Megelea (ROM)	81.30 GR	Bill Schmidt (USA)	80.20	Ivan Morgol (URS)	78.44
Decathlon details	Sepp Zeilbauer (AUT)	7857	Philippe Bobin (FRA)	7568	Winfried Hartweck (FRG)	7382

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: 0.0 m/s) details	Lyudmila Zharkova (URS)	11.31	Mona-Lisa Pursiainen (FIN)	11.47	Patty Loverock (CAN)	11.57
200 metres (wind: 0.0 m/s) details	Pirjo Häggman (FIN)	23.38	Mona-Lisa Pursiainen (FIN)	23.61	Jelica Pavličić (YUG)	23.78
400 metres details	Pirjo Häggman (FIN)	51.80 GR	Inta Kļimoviča (URS)	52.25	Jelica Pavličić (YUG)	52.50
800 metres details	Nina Morgunova (URS)	2:01.94	Jozefína Čerchlanová (TCH)	2:02.45	Nikolina Shtereva (BUL)	2:02.74
1500 metres details	Ellen Wellmann (FRG)	4:08.72	Natalia Andrei (ROM)	4:08.84	Rositsa Pekhlivanova (BUL)	4:10.17
3000 metres details	Natalia Andrei (ROM)	8:54.09	Thelma Wright (CAN)	8:54.94	Svetlana Ulmasova (URS)	8:55.88
100 metres hurdles (wind: 0.0 m/s) details	Grażyna Rabsztyn (POL)	13.14	Bożena Nowakowska (POL)	13.34	Tatyana Anisimova (URS)	13.64
4 × 100 metres relay details	Soviet Union (URS) Inta Kļimoviča Tatyana Anisimova Marina Sidorova Lyudmila Zharkova	44.77	Poland (POL) Ewa Długołęcka Aniela Szubert Barbara Bakulin Grażyna Rabsztyn	44.87	France (FRA) Cécile Cachera Danielle Camus Jacqueline Curtet Rose-Aimée Bacoul	45.88
High jump details	Galina Filatova (URS)	1.88	Sara Simeoni (ITA)	1.88	Alla Fedorchuk (URS)	1.86
Long jump details	Jarmila Nygrýnová (TCH)	6.48	Dorina Catineanu (ROM)	6.34	Alina Gheorghiu (ROM)	6.32
Shot put details	Elena Stoyanova (BUL)	18.99	Mihaela Loghin (ROM)	18.21	Rima Makauskaitė (URS)	18.06
Discus throw details	Mariya Vergova (BUL)	65.28	Argentina Menis (ROM)	64.28	Radostina Bakhchevanova (BUL)	56.96
Javelin throw details	Nadezhda Yakubovich (URS)	61.72	Kate Schmidt (USA)	60.36	Éva Zörgő (ROM)	59.50
Pentathlon details	Jane Frederick (USA)	4442	Djurdja Focic (YUG)	4423	Olga Rukavishnikova (URS)	4313

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	7	5	11	23
2	Poland (POL)	7	3	1	11
3	Italy (ITA)	5	1	1	7
4	West Germany (FRG)	3	2	2	7
5	Finland (FIN)	3	2	0	5
6	Romania (ROM)	2	6	4	12
7	United States (USA)	2	4	0	6
8	Bulgaria (BUL)	2	0	4	6
9	Canada (CAN)	1	4	2	7
10	France (FRA)	1	1	1	3
11	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	1	0	2
12	Austria (AUT)	1	0	0	1
13	Yugoslavia (YUG)	0	3	4	7
14	Hungary (HUN)	0	2	0	2
15	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	2	3
16	Algeria (ALG)	0	0	1	1
	Nigeria (NGR)	0	0	1	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	1	1
Totals (18 entries)		35	35	35	105

• World Student Games (Universiade - Men) - GBR Athletics
• World Student Games (Universiade - Women) - GBR Athletics