Students at Staffordshire University will have more chances to play sport thanks to £74,934 of National Lottery funding from Sport England's University Sport Activation Fund.
The university is one of 54 universities to benefit from nearly £10 million of funding to help get nearly 180,000 new students playing sport.
Staffs Uni's project aims to increase and develop the current recreational sport and healthy lifestyle offer at the University. This will be achieved by employing a project co-ordinator to oversee a full program of both Give It A Go sports, healthy lifestyle opportunities and a recreational intra-mural sports program. Working with our school of sport and sports intern program, the project will look to engage 1500 students per year by providing opportunities in new sports or looking to re-engage students who have disengaged with sport in the transition to University life. Engaging a further 300 students in sports coaching and volunteering will also be a key goal to give the project sustainability and the potential to grow in the future.
The Students' Union's Student Activities Manager Jonathan Pace said: "This additional Lottery funding means we can continue to provide a sports programme that encourages students to have fun and get fit. Our Active Uni programme has gone from strength to strength in the past three years and this continued commitment will let us widen the reach of the programme and make a real difference to the lives of students and the local community."
Currently just over half (52 per cent) of higher education students take part in sport at least once a week. The funding will support projects to not only maintain this level of participation but also increase it by trialling new methods of getting students into sport and offering a wider variety of opportunities to keep them playing sport during their time at university. The projects will particularly concentrate on those that do not currently play. It will also help tackle the issue of many young people giving up sport in their late teens and early twenties.
Sport England Director of Community Sport, Mike Diaper, said: "We know universities play a vital role in maintaining and growing a student's love of sport. They can encourage them to continue playing once they've left school or help those less sporty discover a new sport. By investing in Staffordshire University we're helping students develop a lifelong sporting habit while they study."
Karen Rothery, Chief Executive of British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS), said: "Universities have really risen to the challenge to increase sport participation, firstly through Active Universities, and now through the University Sport Activation Fund. We at BUCS are delighted that our work with Sport England over the past five years has resulted in such a success story, and are confident that we will continue to enhance the student experience through sport in many creative ways throughout the life of the University Sport Activation Fund delivery."
The latest funding for university sport builds on Sport England's highly successful three year 'Active Universities' programme which delivered a 2 per cent rise in the number of students playing sport regularly at the 41 university projects we invested in.