Students at University of Warwick will have more chances to play sport thanks to £182,603 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.

Warwick Sport's Active Project Description:

The driver for the Activation Fund Bid was to continue to develop Warwick Sport's hugely successful Active project by continuing to increase the opportunities for students to engage in a variety of inclusive casual, social and semi competitive sports activities without the need for significant commitment through a club, with clear exit routes for those that wanted to continue with certain sports or activities.

The Activation Fund Bid has identified a number of areas that can be developed to enhance the current offer and provide a comprehensive portfolio of opportunities to increase participation across the campus community. This will be delivered through expanding the current intramural league programme offering a more diverse range of sports including establishing a rackets ladder programme. The ‘rock up and play’ casual and social sessions will also be developed which appeal to all University demographics especially the postgraduate and staff community. Finally an enhanced hall sport and events programme will also be delivered which will contribute significantly to campus life, engaging first year students socially into university life and ensure that students continue with sporting activity once leaving school.

Gemma Morris, Head of Delivery at the University said “The lottery funding means that we can greatly enrich our offer and deliver a comprehensive participation programme that will contribute to the health and wellbeing of the campus community, increase the student experience and offer a number of personal development opportunities. This programme will also play a key role in positioning sport as a priority amongst both University Departments and the staff and student 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 University of Warwick 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 delivering a 2 per cent rise in the number of students playing sport regularly at the 41 university projects we invested in.

ENDS

Notes to Editors 

For more information, please contact Gemma Morris 02476 150383

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 organisations 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.