Sport England has announced a £10 million National Lottery funding round, Active Universities, aimed at increasing the number of university students playing sport regularly by 100,000.

With just under three in 10 university students currently playing sport at least three times a week, Active Universities is a drive to create accessible sporting opportunities for the 72% who say they would like to do more sport.

Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, was joined by Olympic Silver medalist, Heather Fell, and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw for the launch in Sheffield.

“We know that young adults who are playing sport regularly by the time they leave university are likely to stick with it for the rest of their lives”, said Jennie Price.

“That’s why this themed round will really boost our drive to change the nation’s sporting behaviours, and why I’m urging people to come forward with innovative ideas to increase student participation.

“There’s already a strong tradition of competitive sport within universities, but this is a big opportunity to increase participation through more informal and social formats.”

We’d like to see universities engaging with a range of partners in developing innovative bids that will tackle the barriers to student participation.

This initiative comes as a new poll of 1,005 people suggests university students are spending almost twice as much time in pubs as they do on pitches.