Loughborough University to help shape the future of higher education sport
Loughborough University has kicked off 2016 by embarking on a Sport England funded project looking at how sports participation can be increased.
Working with Loughborough Students’ Union and academics within the School Sport Exercise & Health Sciences (SSEHS) and the School of Business and Economics (SBE), the project will utilise behaviour change techniques and campaigns that can be tested at Loughborough and applied across higher education sport.
The innovative data insight project will capture student’s sport participation via a range of techniques, primarily through the use of student swipe cards, and aims to capture all sport and physical activity across the entire student body.
The data generated will be used alongside other non-sport data to develop greater insights into individual student activities. This in depth insight will allow us to market and promote opportunities at an individual level, with a view to helping us achieve our ambitious participation target of having 75% of all of our students playing sport three times a weeks.
The data generated will also allow more insightful decision making and strategic planning.
This is an important project for a University that wants to be world leading in all aspects off HE sport. The insights it will provide us will enable us to better target and tailor our sporting offer to ensure it meets the needs and aspirations of every individual student.
Tim Garfield, Director of Sports Development
Being able to understand, communicate with and motivate our students is at the heart of everything we do.
This project will help us build on our fascinating, experimental work segmenting our students based on their needs, attitudes and aspirations. Our collaboration with the Loughborough University Sports Development Centre on this project provides a unique and meaningful laboratory for work that has potential application far beyond both Loughborough and sport.
Andy Parsons, Director of Loughborough Students’ Union
Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2020 QS World University Rankings and top in the country for its student experience in the 2018 THE Student Experience Survey.
Loughborough is in the top 10 of every national league table, being ranked 4th in the Guardian University League Table 2020, 5th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 and 8th in The UK Complete University Guide 2020.
Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’ and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
Specialising exclusively in postgraduate-level study, Loughborough University London is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers cutting-edge master’s and PhD degrees, as well as business collaboration, research and enterprise opportunities.
The seven specialist institutes at Loughborough University London include: Design Innovation, Digital Technologies, Diplomacy and International Governance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, International Management, Media and Creative Industries, and Sport Business. Close industry partnerships with a wealth of leading businesses and creative organisations means teaching and learning is informed by real-life challenges and driven by true industry pressures.