UCS Announces Results of First Ever National Active Student Survey
University and College Sports (UCS), sponsored exclusively by Life Fitness, has announced the results of the first ever National Active Student Survey (NASS). The Leisure-net Solutions research, which was commissioned by UCS and the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA), examined the participation, facility usage and competitive sport profile of UK students.
Neil Mosley, NASS Project Leader and UCS Executive Member, said: “The first NASS provides our sector with invaluable baseline data about trends and participation. It will provide an ideal building block to help plot our performance as a sector, as we seek to drive participation in sport and physical activity.”
NASS revealed that fitness, or visiting the gym, is the most popular form of exercise undertaken in universities and colleges. On average, 5,400 visits were made to each institution during the audit week and the most popular activity was the gym / fitness, making up 33% of the total visits. This was followed by ‘other’ and then swimming and 5-a-side football – both at 9%.
The survey also showed that students are more aware of the benefits of exercise than the broader population with 65% of them saying that regular exercise is ‘very important’, as opposed to 51% of the general population (HAFOS benchmark figure). However, few students are taking enough exercise - only 23% of the sample reached the recommended levels of 5 x 30mins of moderate intensity activity. Nevertheless, this is still higher than the HAFOS figure of 19%
Lawra Joseph, Marketing Manager at Life Fitness, comments: “Universities and colleges represent a very important market for us and we welcome the data that the first NASS has produced. It is always reassuring to hear that the gym plays a lead role in the provision of sports and leisure activities and we feel that we can play an important part in continuing to improve the health and fitness of the UK’s students. At Life Fitness we are uniquely positioned to provide the most flexible range of exercise products to ensure that higher education gym facilities are able to meet the very different demands of all their user groups, from exercise novices to elite athletes.”
NASS was developed to complement the Sport England Active People survey, undertaken in 2006, which sought to capture the wider population’s activity levels in sport and physical activity. The research was based on information gathered from on-line questionnaires completed by universities and colleges, and on over 22,000 surveys completed by students from over 120 establishments. It is anticipated that the next NASS survey will take place in November 2007.
For more information on the NASS and a full report of the results please visit the UCS website at www.ucsport.net.
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