Drive to boost number of students playing sport

Sport England is today announcing a £10 million National Lottery funding round, Active Universities, aimed at getting more university students playing sport.

Just under three in 10 university students currently play sport regularly[i]. Active Universities is a drive to get 100,000 more students participating at least three times a week by creating accessible sporting opportunities for the 72% who say they would like to do more sport.

Boosting participation among students will help us achieve our 2012 Olympic legacy goal of getting a million people playing more sport, by reducing the number of people who drop out in their late teens and early twenties[ii]. We know that those students who do play sport at university are far more likely to continue participating throughout their lives[iii].

The Active Universities fund is the third of Sport England's competitive themed rounds aimed at addressing challenges to grassroots sport and opportunities to increase participation. Sport England is calling for innovative applications from universities and others that will tackle the barriers to student participation, which include:

• An insufficient number of coaches, volunteers and co-ordinators to increase and sustain student participation
• Over-structured and inflexible sporting provision within universities which doesn’t cater for all students, particularly those who don’t want to compete for their university
• A failure to replicate the sporting opportunities that young people had previously enjoyed at sports clubs in their local community
• Capacity issues at universities that don’t have sports facilities on their sites and haven’t yet formed partnerships with other providers. Research shows that nine out of 10 university sports halls are at capacity during term time.

Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, said:

“We know that young adults who are playing sport regularly by the time they leave university are likely to stick with it for the rest of their lives. That’s why this themed round will really boost our drive to change the nation’s sporting behaviours, and why I’m urging people to come forward with innovative ideas to increase student participation.

“There’s already a strong tradition of competitive sport within universities, but this is a big opportunity to increase participation through more informal and social formats.”

The announcement is being supported by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw. He said:

“We want to encourage young people to play sport for life, not give up on it the minute they leave school. This fantastic investment will inspire thousands up and down the country to keep playing and help thousands more discover a new found passion for sport.

“I am sure universities will use this investment to come up with exciting and innovative ways to get their students playing sport. This will help us deliver a lasting legacy in sports participation from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

The launch of Active Universities in Sheffield coincides with the first day of the British Universities and Colleges Sport Championships, which will see 6,000 elite student athletes competing across 26 sports over four days in Sheffield and the wider Yorkshire region.

To find out more, go to the funding section of our website

Notes to Editors

The term ‘universities’ includes only the 130 higher education institutions who receive funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Sport England is seeking applications from:

• Individual universities – projects can include partnership working with local partners such as local authorities and community sports clubs
• A lead partner on behalf of a group of universities for a national, regional or local project.

Sport England invests National Lottery and Exchequer funding in organisations and projects that will grow and sustain participation in grassroots sport and create opportunities for people to excel at their chosen sport.

Sport England is committed to creating a world-leading community sport system, and has set specific and measurable targets to achieve by 2012/13:

• One million people doing more sport
• A 25% reduction in the number of 16- to 18-year-olds who drop out of at least five key sports
• Improved talent development systems in at least 25 sports
• A measurable increase in people’s satisfaction with their experience of sport
• A major contribution to the delivery of the five hour sports offer for children and young people.

Footnotes

¹ Sport England’s Active People Survey 3 (APS 3) shows that 519,000 university students (26.99%) currently play sport regularly, doing at least three 30 minute sessions a week.

² APS 3 shows that 35.2% of 16-year-olds play sport regularly, compared to 30.49% of 21 year-olds, a fall of almost 5%.

³ APS 3 shows that by the age of 35, 23.4% of graduates are playing sport regularly compared to less than 18.8% of the overall population at that age. At 50 19.3% of graduates are playing sport regularly compared to less than 13% of the overall population.