Lottery boost to get more Bournemouth students playing sport

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Students at Bournemouth University are being urged to give sport another go after a project secured £266,338 in National Lottery funding from Sport England.

Along with 40 other projects, Free Your Fitness is being backed by Sport England’s £10 million Active Universities fund to get more university students playing sport, as part of the mass participation legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Free Your Fitness will give students access to a wide range of new and refreshed sports activities at a variety of locations in the community. Students will be offered a unique membership deal across a range of facilities and will also be offered discounted rates in return for volunteering within community sport. They will also be encouraged to gain qualifications in coaching and officiating, allowing them to manage their own activities and events.

The project was developed after research found a lack of time, cost and travel to be the main barriers to participation. By creating a programme of sports and activities that are low cost, accessible and within a reasonable travel distance, Free Your Fitness will get hundreds more students playing sport.

Steve Jones, Community, Culture & Sport Manager at Bournemouth University, said:

“The funding is great news for the university as it will help us encourage more students to discover the long-term enjoyment of regular sport participation. It further strengthens our local and regional partnerships so that we can provide improved access to a range of facilities and sports close to where students live and study. sportBU staff are now eagerly looking forward to starting the project.”

The Active Universities projects will give tens of thousands of students across the country the chance to try out a new sport, or get back into one they’ve tried before.

Boosting student participation will have a lasting impact on grassroots sport because research shows that students who do play sport at university are far more likely to continue participating throughout their lives. It will also help tackle the issue of drop-off in sports participation that sees many young people giving up sport in their late teens and early twenties.

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

“Young adults who are still playing sport when they leave university are likely to stick with it for life, so this is a good investment in the future. These projects have been chosen because they really listened to what students wanted, so we are confident they will succeed in increasing participation.”

Today’s announcement was welcomed by the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP and Olympic Gold medalist, Amy Williams.

Hugh Robertson said:

“This funding for 41 different sport projects across the country is exactly what our Olympic legacy promise is about - offering more opportunities for people to get involved. This will boost university sport and encourage students to continue playing once their studies are over.”

Amy Williams, who won Olympic Gold in the skeleton at the 2010 Games, only took up her sport while at the University of Bath, having been a 400m runner at school. She said:

“Going to university is a great chance to try out something new and in my case that something new was the skeleton. Sport is an amazing way to make friends, get fit, have fun and pick up skills that could help you get a job when your student days are over.”

Recognising the strong tradition of competitive sport within universities, Active Universities projects will meet the need for more informal and social sporting opportunities. The projects were chosen through a competitive process.

Chair of British Universities and Colleges Sport, Ed Smith, said:

“This represents a great outcome for Higher Education and a fabulous opportunity to increase the depth and breadth of participation by young people whilst they benefit from academic studies and the overall student experience at university. The link between sport and life skills is evident from the way employers seek out people who are active in sport and this will be a boost as graduates make their way into the job market.”

President of the Student Union (SUBU), Toby Horner, said:

“This is an extremely positive leap forward for Sport at BU and a step towards promoting it as part of a healthy lifestyle.
“Targeting students who may currently perceive sport as an undesirable choice is an exciting prospect, as is promoting the wider benefits that result from schemes such as this. Most importantly, this is recognition that sport really can be, and should be, for all.”

For more information about Bournemouth University Free Your Fitness, please contact Stephen Jones on 012 0296 1814.

For more information about Active Universities or Sport England, please contact the press office: Peter Dickinson on 020 7273 1800.