Photo: Helen Munro
We have all heard about the plans to slash the Higher Education budget. Whether we agree with it or not, we all know that there will be inevitable consequences for what many have called the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Britain for the last 10 years.
What I am worried about most, though, even more than the significance of this for education, is what will become of all the progress that has been made in student sport.
Tremendous strides have been taken in the last few years with regards to university sport here and up and down the country.
BUCS is now a huge organisation, and prestige in inter-university sporting events is no longer limited to an Oxbridge boat race.
Now success in student sport means something; anybody who has been to an important match of any type at Norton or Goodwin will know by the celebrations or etched disappointment on the faces of those involved of the esteem attached to weekly university sport fixtures.
So, too, will anyone who went to the Ski Village or Sheffield Arena for Winter Varsity appreciate how important sport is to making this city so exciting to be a student in, and maintaining the all-important rivalry against Hallam.
Now, more than ever, many of Britain’s top athletes have universities up and down the country to thank for making them the world-class competitors they are.
University gives athletes a platform to improve and mature while they give back to it by raising the standard and reputation of student sport.
A massive amount of effort has gone into promoting sport at almost every university in the country in the last decade; why, then, would the people in charge be willing to risk ruining it all by making student sport bear some of the brunt of the funding cuts?
The reason is that however important we may contend sport to be, it is not at the core of Higher Education, and the progress that has been made here will be a much easier and less controversial sacrifice than anything academic related.
Sport, it might be assumed, is probably immune to budget cuts- after all, it doesn’t take much money to hop on a coach and go up to Leeds for a hockey match, and our Uni’s equipment seems to be in pretty good nick.
However, what makes the University of Sheffield and hundreds more so special is that there is such a wide variety of activities to choose from, so there is amazing diversity and opportunity which make our student years so important.
The proof that all these sports play a vital role is that there is more than enough demand for them.
With so much diversity, the costs rack up. Not only this, but our Sports Officer and the Club Sport team work tirelessly every day to ensure that there is always something going on for us to get involved with, and to reward those who do get involved.
The Union pays a lot of money for high-quality coaching, and it is this has helped to make the standard of modern club sport so high.
Without the attraction of the current level of superiority in student sport, the promising sportspeople who now enrol at university would not feel so inclined to do so.
Hopefully the worst-case scenario won’t happen, and university sport will be able to see itself through the bad patch. One thing is for sure, though: it will be a huge shame if the advancement in student sport is lost.
The last 10 years have set the ball rolling, and if it stops now the emphasis on sport may never be fully regained.
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