We are pleased to announce that we have been successful in the Active Universities bid. Sport England has confirmed that we will receive the full bid amount of £99,723 to run another three year Give Sport A Go programme for the students of Salford. This is the best news we could have hoped for and will allow us to continue to make a difference to student participation in sport on campus.

This latest funding builds on Sport England’s highly successful three year ‘Active Universities’ programme (known as Give Sport A Go here at Salford)  which delivered a two percent rise in the number of students playing sport regularly across 41 university projects.

We are one of 54 institutions to benefit from nearly £10 million of funding to help get nearly 180,000 new students playing sport.

Due to the programmes high success and participation rates, we are excited to again be able to offer our students the opportunity to get involved – extending the sports offer even further,  providing you with more chances to Give Sport A Go.

We aim to provide weekly drop in sessions, as well as intra-mural leagues and dance fitness classes on campus.

We are pleased to announce that this funding also allows us to extend the programme to staff, to encourage healthy work/life balances.

We’d like to thank our existing partners, University of Salford and Salford Community Leisure for their support during the previous three years of Give Sport A Go, and look forward to continuing our positive relationship over the next three years. 

Also part of this funding wouldn’t be possible without the kind support from our new partner, Campus Living Villages.  We are thrilled to be working with a large student focused organisation, aiming to enrich students’ lives on campus.

Mishal Saeed, Students’ Union President, said: “This funding means we can provide an inclusive participation programme for students here at Salford. Having listened to our students’ voice we can extend our sporting offer from weekly drop in sessions to Intra-mural leagues aimed at student accommodation and schools on campus to dance fitness classes. We hope our new extended programme of Give Sport A Go will inspire all students to increase their level of activity.

“We believe our project will improve the health and well-being of our students, raising their aspirations and their quality of life in University.”

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 participate in sport. It will also help tackle the issue of many young people giving up sport in their late teens and early twenties.

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.”

For more information, please contact Student Activities Manager Stephanie Pratt at s.l.pratt@salford.ac.uk or 0161 351 5400.