In 2015, the Student Executives lobbied that the cost of playing sport at the University of Leeds was higher than at other peer universities and was a barrier to participation, reducing the opportunities available for students to take part in club sport.
In response, the Senior Management Team established a project group involving both staff and students, led by Sport & Physical Activity Services (SPA) and Leeds University Union (LUU), to explore this in more detail.
The project group organised desktop research and engaged consultancy firm, SUMS, to engage with staff and students and to undertake a benchmarking exercise using 11 sports against 11 different universities.
Following this significant piece of work, the findings were developed further and translated into a series of recommendations, which were endorsed by the University Council.
The Council gave the green light to make two key changes:
– Firstly, to remove the requirement for students to pay for a £78 Sports Pass product (or any other Edge product) to access facility space for training and competitions
– Secondly, to introduce a ‘Cost of Sport’ fund which equates to a cash investment from SPA of £300K to go directly into LUU clubs and societies to enable them to reduce membership costs.
The results of these measures have been significant, successfully reducing the cost to the individual and thereby removing this barrier to participation:
– A total cash investment of £615K has been made directly into 67 LUU clubs and societies since 2015/16
– The number of students joining sports clubs and societies has risen by a staggering 51% since the project was introduced in 2015/16 (8,791 students in 2017/18 alone)
– Club membership fees have reduced by 21% on average from £79 to £59 and are now 22% cheaper on average at the University of Leeds than our benchmark institutions across 10 benchmark clubs.
