News | Wednesday, 6th February 2019
New sport funding to help more women students become fit and active
BUCS grant to boost activity and support mental health
Manchester Metropolitan University has been granted more than £22,000 to boost physical activity in women students and to support mental health.
The BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) Active grant will support projects aimed at getting thousands of new participants into physical activity.
Manchester Metropolitan is one of 18 universities which successfully bid to receive the funding and one of only two to receive a grant for both strands.
MMU Sport will receive more than £11,000 to provide new activities to support mental health, including:
- Setting up Zone Out hubs to give students a break from studies and exams
- Exercise 101, which gives introductory personal training gym sessions to students referred to MMU Sport through the University’s Counselling, Health and Wellbeing Service
- An increase in mindful sessions on the Active Campus programme and mental health first aid training for all session leaders
- The introduction of P.A.L (physical activity leaders), a peer-to-peer scheme to support students with physical activity by promoting the Active Campus programme and attending sessions with individual students to help build confidence
The team will also receive a further £11,000 to give women new opportunities in sport, including:
- Women Who Lift courses to teach and support women who want to lift weights and eliminate the stereotype that ‘cardio is for women and lifting is for men’
- Expand on the current women-only gym sessions
- Female F.I.T (female in training) ambassadors to promote the classes in faculties where engagement is lower
- An ‘exercise with confidence’ scheme, which works with the University’s Counselling, Health and Wellbeing Service to offer students a training programme over eight weeks at one of the three health and fitness centres
Phil Cook, Head of Development at MMU Sport, said: “We are delighted that both of our bids have been successful, which demonstrates our commitment to providing an inclusive programme of sport and activity for all students at Manchester Met.
“Our team already work really hard to deliver a wide range of activities and events, and are continuously looking for new ways to get students active, so we can’t wait to get started with these projects.”
Collectively, the 18 universities will receive £160,000 with the hope to gain more than 5,400 new student participants.
The activities are due to start mid-February and will run until June 2019.
Over these six months, BUCS will be working closely with the universities to deliver their projects with the aim of sharing key challenges and successes with the sector, to help other universities that may be looking to target a similar demographic of students.
