Challenges and barriers to increasing participation amongst higher education students

Projects should address the barriers to participation in sport faced by higher education students enrolled at universities in England.

Based on our work with the higher education sector we have identified the following generic challenges to increasing students’ participation in sport. We also expect projects to identify their local barriers to participation and demonstrate how the project proposed will address these as well.

Challenges and barriers

Work pressures and competing activities

HE sport currently doesn’t work for many students and needs to have a more attractive offer. Not all students are based on campuses, many live at home and many study part time. Sport has to compete against students’ increased work pressures balancing study and earning money as well as having a wide variety of recreational activities to choose from.

It’s not all about competition and rankings

Sporting provision within HE is too structured and inflexible to cater for all students. Students do want to play competitive sports but not always through formal competitive routes. HE sport has traditionally focused on teams, competition and rankings.

Demand outweighs supply

Many students have severed links with local sporting opportunities when they arrive at university but want to join a sports club or try a new sport. This enthusiasm is not harnessed due to lack of capacity within student clubs and teams.

Capacity constraints within HE sport

There are significant capacity constraints in many institutions, based on availability of a workforce and facilities. A recent Sport England-led HE audit demonstrated that:

• There are insufficient coaches, volunteers and coordinators to increase and sustain student participation

• 73% of universities do not have sports facilities on all their sites

• 91% of sports halls are at capacity during term time

• 88% of universities are already using external facilities for sport.

Further information from the HE audit and a consultation report can be found on our HE webpage.