Shortlisted for BUCS Inclusion & Diversity Award

We are delighted to announce that TeamUCL has been shortlisted for the BUCS Diversity & Inclusion Award due to our ongoing work in providing opportunities for all students at UCL to participate in sport & physical Activity. Our work this year has encompassed removing financial barriers, increasing opportunity for under-represented groups, an inaugural disability sport programme, community building and eliminating any form of bullying, harassment or discrimination from student clubs.

Disability Sport

Our work on this year's disability sport programme began in the Summer of 2021 where we secured funding from Sport England. The programme has developed into weekly wheelchair basketball sessions, fitness sessions for disabled students alongside qualified instructors at Bloomsbury Fitness gym, quiet hours at Bloomsbury Fitness to create optimal training environments for students with sensory disabilities, and pilot sessions for a Men’s Health Active programme that aims to use physical activity as a means of active listening to support men’s mental health. 20 students have taken up a combined total of 54 hours of personal 1-2-1 training, which has helped provide one student with the following benefit, "The programme has benefited my mental health as it has allowed me some time to not think about University stress. After attending the sessions, I feel more courageous to go to the gym alone"

Participation Fund

All too often sport can have financial barriers. Following student feedback, the Participation Fund was implemented to ensure that students have access to sport and physical activity regardless of their financial circumstance. The confidential process has resulted in £3960 being allocated to 29 students to cover costs relating transport, equipment and playing kit. We’re proud to announce that this fund has been increased for the 2022-23 season as well.

Project Active

Our Participation programme, Project Active, has continued to engage under-represented groups through social leagues, exercise classes and one-off events. The programme has seen 1762 student participants with 38.04% of these individuals classing themselves as inactive before joining the programme. In addition, we also ran our most successful This Girl Can Week engaging 459 students across a range of inclusive activity.

TeamUCL Leagues

TeamUCL Leagues were created to provide further sporting opportunities with a particular focus on community building, particular within cultural societies here at UCL. Roughly 500 students have taken part across 6 sports leagues with great engagement from African-Caribbean Society, Hindu Society, Pakistan Society, Sikh Society, Malayali Society, and Indian Society.

TeamUCL Against Hate Campaign

Led by this year’s Sports Officers, James Maidment and Saiff Hamid, the TeamUCL Against Hate Campaign set out to eradicate any form of discrimination and reward exemplary acts of inclusion and diversity. The campaign has created an accreditation scheme clubs can follow to achieve Gold standard work in this area, with an overall aim of making UCL the most inclusive sporting institution in the country.

A message from your Sport Officers: "We are incredibly excited to be nominated for this award. It is testament to the dedication, hard work and brilliance of the TeamUCL team (Staff, Officers and Students); we’re particularly happy that the team’s efforts to increase participation in sport have been recognised by BUCS. We’re really looking forward to the Awards and celebrating everyone’s success!"