819,000 students already play sport once or twice a week – which we
aim to increase to at least three times a week.
Sport England and British Universities & Colleges
Sport (
BUCS
) have
published a new partnership plan to capitalise on the potential of
students to make a major contribution to our goals, while improving
their own life prospects.
Our target is to increase the number of people playing regular
sport by one million – and we believe students can account for
almost a third of these participants. To harness their potential,
we are investing £480,000 in
BUCS
to champion
and develop student sport.
Our research shows that 819,000 students already play sport once
or twice a week – which we aim to increase to at least three times
a week. Many of the sports in which we are investing have specific
plans aimed at those in higher and further education.
Last week, we published a partnership plan setting out how we
will work with
BUCS
and the
higher education sector to get more students participating, and
help those with talent to fulfil their full potential.
Jennie Price, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said:
"This is the start of a genuine partnership between Sport
England and higher education that will not only drive
participation, but also help students develop skills that will
enhance their educational attainment and employment prospects.
"We are looking forward to working with higher education
partners to deliver sporting opportunities to students, a group
with the potential to make a major contribution to our target of
getting one million people playing more sport."
Ed Smith, Chair of
BUCS
, said:
“Getting more people to be active and play sport should be an
integral part of all higher education institutions’ offer to
students and university staff. This plan will support best practice
from the sector to widen participation and demonstrate the
importance of higher education sport to the wider sporting
landscape.”
You can find out more about our work with higher education by
downloading the partnership plan