A recursively enumerable splitting of an r.e. setAis a pair of r.e. setsBandCsuch thatA=B∪CandB∩C= ⊘. Since for such a splitting degA= degB∪ degC, r.e. splittings proved to be a quite useful notion for investigations into the structure of the r.e. degrees. Important splitting theorems, like Sacks splitting [S1], Robinson splitting [R1] and Lachlan splitting [L3], use r.e. splittings.Since each r.e. splitting of a set induces a splitting of its degree, it is natural to study the relation between the degrees of (...) r.e. splittings and the degree splittings of a set. We say a setAhas thestrong universal splitting property if each splitting of its degree is represented by an r.e. splitting of itself, i.e., if for degA=b∪cthere is an r.e. splittingB, CofAsuch that degB=band degC=c. The goal of this paper is the study of this splitting property.In the literature some weaker splitting properties have been studied as well as splitting properties which imply failure of the SUSP. (shrink)