Southampton Solent University receives £77,963 to get more students active

Students at Southampton Solent University will have more chances to play sport after being awarded £77,963 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s University Sport Activation Fund. 

Southampton Solent is one of 62 universities to benefit from more than £11 million of funding to help get nearly 195,000 new students playing sport. 

The programme offers a wide range of mainstream and new sports that are chosen by Southampton Solent University students. The scheme catered for around 200 students on a weekly basis in the 2013-14 academic year and operates on a "turn up and play" concept.

Matt Bishop, Sports Development Manager at the university, says: “This Lottery funding from Sport England means we can provide an inclusive programme of participation sports for all university students. Having listened to what our students want we can now offer a range of ‘Give Sport a Try’ sessions along with some social league based sports which we believe will improve the health and well-being of our students, raising their aspirations and their quality of life at University.

“It is the first time we have managed to acquire major funding in this area of sport, and we are looking forward to working with Sport England to increase participation and enhance our sporting pathway.”

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, says: “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 Southampton Solent University we’re helping students develop a lifelong sporting habit while they study.”

Karen Rothery, Chief Executive of British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS), says: “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 two per cent rise in the number of students playing sport regularly at the 41 university projects that they invested in.

Sport England is focused on helping people and communities across the country create a sporting habit for life. We will invest over £1 billion of National Lottery and Exchequer funding between 2012 and 2017 in organizations and projects that will:

• Help more people have a sporting habit for life
• Create more opportunities for young people to play sport
• Nurture and develop talent
• Provide the right facilities in the right places
• Support local authorities and unlock local funding
• Ensure real opportunities for communities.

The National Lottery has been changing lives for 18 years.  Every week National Lottery players raise over £30 million to help change people's lives across the UK.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE MEDIA OFFICE ON 023 8031 9040 or press.office@solent.ac.uk

About Southampton Solent University 

Southampton Solent University offers more than 23,000 students over 200 qualifications ranging from HND to PhD, in subjects such as maritime education and training, fashion and design, media and television, music, health, sport and leisure, business, IT and technology. The University was awarded the 2013 Quality Assurance kitemark for quality and standards of teaching and learning. Solent was voted one of the most creative universities in the UK in a Which? University 2013 poll of students. Solent Business School has been awarded the Small Business Charter Award, which is supported by the Association of Business Schools and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and ‘gold approval’ by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

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