INTERVIEW
looking to extend commercial oppor-
tunities at BUCS sports events, such as
selling kit to enhance the overall sport Students already
experience for spectators. participate in sport
at almost twice
Raising the Profile the level of the
During her first year in office, Rothery general population
says the organisation has been busy
raising the profile of HE sport and de-
veloping relationships with key sporting
bodies. “So that people in the broader
sporting landscape and the general
public recognise the huge role sport has
to play in giving students the oppor-
tunity to participate and develop their
personal skills,” she explains.
“It’s not just about a student signing
up to play for the university football
team, it’s about having the opportunity
for that person to train to be a referee,
learn to coach or develop personal lead-
ership skills so that they can take those
skills back into the community once
they’ve finished their education.
“Employers are increasingly looking
for university graduates with extended
skills that show leadership quality and
a ‘can do’ attitude.”
Rothery says an important part of BUCS, together with Sport England, is looking to develop
BUCS’ remit is to encourage sport
the link between education and grassroots sport to get
provision that can extend into the com-
munity. “Universities don’t exist in
300,000 students playing more sport by 2012/2013
isolation, they are located in communi-
ties, so local people should also be able via land line phones and many students Future plans
to access facilities on a regular basis,” only have access to mobile phones.” Now the simpler, streamlined man-
she explains. “We encourage the shar- However, Rothery explains that Sport agement structure is in place, Rothery
ing of best practice and run a number of England is undertaking a new piece of says that customer service is also a
advisory groups that meet three or four research to establish whether the stu- natural step for her second year in of-
times a year to encourage our stake- dent participation level suggested in fice. “We’re in the service industry so
holders to share ideas. We also give Active People is accurate or not. “Stu- we need to recognise and deliver on
advice on how to deliver sport at our dents already participate at almost twice our stakeholders’ needs. We have nine
workshops and training sessions at the the level of the general population [21 delivery bodies in England, one in Scot-
BUCS annual conference, [at Keele Uni- per cent versus 36 per cent]” she says. land, one in Wales and one in Northern
versity from 1-4 of September this year].” Asked how she intends to increase Ireland and the advisory group works
participation even further, Rothery with these bodies to make sure the new
Increasing Participation says that as well as honouring stu- structure is adhered to in these regions.
Looking forward, a major objective for dents’ requests for a wide variety of “Sport England recently published
Rothery in the coming year is to increase sport options, the plan is to capitalise a brand new Stakeholder Plan and it
sport participation within HE. BUCS has on the social aspect of sport to encour- allows, for the first time, some invest-
recently partnered with Sport England age more students into regular activity. ment for us to develop our capacity by
on a consultation regarding plans to fur- “Sport England has given us funding employing more staff. Although I can’t
ther develop the partnership between to build a social network on Facebook, pre-judge the finding of the consultation
education and grassroots sport to get which will be piloted during the next linked to this plan, I expect it will focus
300,000 students playing and enjoying few months. This will target students around helping universities to assist
more sport by 2012/2013. who have expressed an interest in a students develop their sports through
“It’s difficult to properly gauge how particular activity or those in a certain coaching and volunteering and deliver
many students get active on a reglar ba- demographic in order to create instant opportunities to train up staff. The plan
sis,” Rothery explains. “Sport England’s social networks. For example, the uni- also allows for us to bid for a themed
Active People Survey is one benchmark versity might post a message on funding round which could be up to
but we’ve had some concerns about how Facebook for students to meet outside £10m. This implies that HE sport is finally
accurately it reflects student participation the student union bar at 6pm on being recognised as an important link to
– mainly because people are surveyed Thursday for a 3km run.” increased participation in sport. ●
18 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital Issue 3 2009 © cybertrek 2009
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