Sheffield Hallam students get active in sport programme

Students at Sheffield Hallam University have taken part in more sport in the first year of Sport England’s Active Universities campaign than any other participating university in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

1,927 students at the University took part in sports through the scheme, which utilised Sheffield Hallam's strong links with external clubs, along with the expertise of sport and physical activity staff at the University.

Dan Porter, head of sport services at Sheffield Hallam, said: "The Active Universities initiative has made a massive impact on our ability to deliver social sport to a wider section of our students.

"It helps us encourage an increasingly healthy and active University population and we have more resources for facilities, coaching and volunteer development. This has been instrumental in increasing our offer to 23 sports.

"Year two of the programme is seeing an even bigger increase in the amount of participation and we are reaching even more students across all areas of the University."

The most popular sports at Sheffield Hallam throughout the first year of Active Universities were badminton (879 visits to sessions), boxing (560 visits to sessions) and tennis (366 visits to sessions). The sessions were delivered by 57 coaches and 96 student volunteers, who are drawn from the University's sport courses and receive recognised training qualifications as part of the scheme.

Sport England is investing over £8million of National Lottery funding over three years through Active Universities to get more students playing sport. It is part of the work to tackle the issue of drop-off in sports participation that sees many young people giving up sport in their late teens and early twenties.

Recognising the strong tradition of high-level competitive sport within universities, Active Universities projects have focused on the need for more informal and social sporting opportunities.

Sport England’s director of community sport, Mike Diaper, said: “It’s fantastic that so many students are taking the opportunity to make sport a regular part of their lives. In the past too many students who didn’t make it onto university teams had been lost to sport altogether. 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.”

For press information contact: Joe Field on 0114 225 2074 or email pressoffice@shu.ac.uk