From evidencing improvements in academic grades and increasing student engagement, to being recipients of national awards and generating societal savings, Sport and Leisure at City St George’s has hit an all-time high.
The 2024-25 academic year was transformative for sport, physical activity, health and fitness, and wellness provision at City St George’s, University of London. The university Sport and Leisure Service’s impact delivering these services for our students, staff, and local community reached an all-time peak.
Of all our highlights, we are most proud of:
- CitySport student members are 17% more likely to get a First or 2.1 degree
- There was an 82% increase in unique student members
- Launch of 11 new student programmes
- Two national accreditations awarded
- Over £1.4million social value generated for society
- 40% improvement in financial contribution to the university
So how did we do it? Some of our core projects are shared below in line with the university’s objectives on using sport for good.
- Facilitate positive experiences through sport and physical activity for our university community.
- Employ and develop industry best practices.
- Operate a socially and financially sustainable service.
- Actively engage our local community in sport and physical activity to generate social impact.
University Experience
More students than ever before took part in sport and physical activity. The reconfiguration of the Student membership, to include all group exercise classes and 80+ other gyms through the BUCS UNIversal Gym scheme, all for just £100, saw an 82% increase from the year before. More students also attended CitySport or took part in university programmes on a casual basis, with a 28% increase in unique student engagement.
As a university Service, we also want to support their studies. Analysing module working grades, it’s possible to state that students who are active at CitySport achieve a 5% better grade. Within School variances were utilised to control for potential biases associated with different grading standards. When looking at just undergraduate students based on campus, students who had a CitySport membership were 17% more likely to achieve a First or 2.1 degree classification as they graduated. This is up from 13% in 2023-24.
Eleven new programmes were introduced to better the student experience. Most prominent were the launch of the Student-Athlete Support Programme, providing valuable support for our talented students; introduction of four weekly women’s only sport or fitness sessions, to reduce the disparity between male and female engagers; and creation of the Hardship Fund, in partnership with the CityCares and Funding teams, to provide free access for students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it. And lest us forget the inaugural Staff Sports Day over the summer.
Sport and Leisure also work with several internal partners to support their programmes. A bespoke membership was introduced for the School of Communication and Creativity’s Urdang dance students, helping them remain healthy for their performances, and 105 hours of CitySport facility space was provided for SCC academic teaching each week. We also work in partnership with the Students’ Union to ensure that 90+ hours per week of Club Sport and social sport programmes operate safely.
Best Practice
Implementation of effective and safe facility procedures was a focus, and the improvements we made were recognised as operationally excellent by ukactive – the governing body for the physical activity sector – with the award of The Active Standard. City St George’s was the second university ever to be awarded this allocate. A core component of this award involved safeguarding developments, which included the ratification of sport and physical activity specific policy for the university. Sport England’s TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) also established City St George’s as an Accredited Site for the provision provided to student-athletes.
Best practice wasn’t limited to just our institution. Our Head of Sport and Leisure supports sector wide developments to enhance City St George’s reputation. He represents as the London universities’ regional chair for Sport, sits on the BUCS Sport Review Implementation Group, and supports an International Olympic Committee working group focusing on the intersection of sport and technology.
Corporate Sustainability
Creating better facilities with better customer service, results in more satisfied users. Over 2024-25, five facility upgrades occurred, including installation of shower cubicles in the men’s changing room, auto-exit functionality configured on the turnstile gates, and new gym flooring laid. Developments haven’t just been physical with the groundwork undertaken over the academic year for the launch of the new CitySport website and booking mobile application.
It's no surprise that more people are now more active at CitySport. There was a 17% increase in annual visits and, through our Sport England reporting tool, we were able to determine we were the 19th best facility – out of over 3,000 centres UK wide – and the best educational provider for usage growth entering the start of 2025-26 academic year.
A remodelled membership structure and activity pricing review, maximised user value for money. We made it more affordable for all users to access our services, and we did so whilst also increasing our financial contribution to the university by 40%. We aren’t here to maximise our profits and so we’re also pleased to also say we’ve provided £350k of facility space as in-kind too.
Social Impact
The introduction of a Social Value Calculator – funded by Sport England – enables us to evaluate the impact our sport and physical activity provision in terms on monetary values. A saving for sociality is determined through reduced incidents of long-term health illnesses, life satisfaction, personal development, and reduction of crime as a result of being active. City St George’s contribution for the previous 12-months was over £1.4 million.
Alongside our student user growth, we achieved a notable increase in public users. At a group level, Sport and Leisure have developed more relationships with external organisations. From local community groups, providing weekly karate lessons, all the way up to the NBA, who used CitySport as their training base for the Team USA men’s and women’s basketball teams, the university has catered for all types of sport delivery. Cherrytree, a charity providing educational courses for NEET (not in education, employment, or training) individuals, are also based within CitySport providing regular Fitness level 2 and 3 courses.
Tom Edwards, Head of Sport and Leisure, said: “It’s been great to showcase the Service’s successes for 2024-25. In what was a slightly turbulent start to the year following change of leadership and implementation of a new delivery model, the staff hit the ground running to maximise positive experiences and the sense of belonging of all our users. The impact figures speak for themselves, but I’m excited to say of behalf of the whole team that is this only the start!”.
Further improvements have already occurred in 2025-26 Term 1, with additional exciting projects underway to enhance the delivery of sport and physical activity across all our campuses. Keep an eye out for our these over the coming months.
If you’d like to find out more about any of our successes for 2024-25, please visit the CitySport website or contact citysport@citystgeorges.ac.uk, where your request will be passed onto the relevant Manager.