Sport England
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Students key to grassroots participation growth

Sport England and British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) have published a new partnership plan to capitalise on the potential of students to make a major contribution to our goals, while improving their own life prospects.

Our target is to increase the number of people playing regular sport by one million – and we believe students can account for almost a third of these participants. To harness their potential, we are investing £480,000 in to champion and develop student sport.to champion and develop student sport.

Our research shows that 819,000 students already play sport once or twice a week – which we aim to increase to at least three times a week. Many of the sports in which we are investing have specific plans aimed at those in higher and further education.

Last week, we published a partnership plan setting out how we will work with and the higher education sector to get more students participating, and help those with talent to fulfil their full potential.and the higher education sector to get more students participating, and help those with talent to fulfil their full potential.

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

"This is the start of a genuine partnership between Sport England and higher education that will not only drive participation, but also help students develop skills that will enhance their educational attainment and employment prospects.

"We are looking forward to working with higher education partners to deliver sporting opportunities to students, a group with the potential to make a major contribution to our target of getting one million people playing more sport."

Ed Smith, Chair of , said:, said:

“Getting more people to be active and play sport should be an integral part of all higher education institutions’ offer to students and university staff. This plan will support best practice from the sector to widen participation and demonstrate the importance of higher education sport to the wider sporting landscape.”

You can find out more about our work with higher education by downloading the partnership plan
 

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