BUCS Strategy Proposal, 2012 to 2017.

Executive Summary

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) has changed and grown during the first four years of it’s life. As well as consistent growth in the numbers of members and participants in its sporting programme, BUCS has broadened its activities significantly to the extent that sport, sport development, healthy lifestyles, advocacy and influencing and financial stability have all improved.

The environment has, however, changed fundamentally over the same period, and it is now pertinent to reconsider the organisational direction bearing in mind the new educational landscape and the far reaching changes in the economy and society.

BUCS members have taken part in a consultation to advise the direction and drive for BUCS over the next 5 years, and have been clear in their opinion of where they see the organisation going. Far from wholesale change, they want BUCS to continue doing what it already does – to evolve from sound beginnings, to continue with the sports programmes and new initiatives around sport development; to continue to enhance the student experience through sport, and to act and influence on members’ behalf where it can.

There are though, some new things members would like BUCS to work on. They are not real departures from the original strategy, more a development from it to ensure the organisation supports its members in the best possible way. Members would like to be able to demonstrate an association between sport and employability of students who take part in it; they want to be able to show the value of sport to third parties, and to facilitate investment around it; they want BUCS to expand the portfolio of sports and opportunities to engage; and they would like BUCS to take the lead on measuring institutional performance in overall terms – not only of their best sportsmen and women, but every aspect of sport and healthy lifestyles at their institution.

This paper outlines the steps BUCS will take in delivering this mission to members over the next five years.

  1. Introduction

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) was created in June 2008, the new organisation which brought together British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) and University College Sport (UCS), the former being a traditional provider of inter university competitive sport, and the latter the body which represented the professionals working in higher education (HE) who deliver the programmes and support services. The fledgling BUCS retained much of the cultural and operational legacy of BUSA, and the vision of the new organisation included sport, professional development of staff and sport development into a single body.

The aspirations of the new organisation were significant, and the purpose of BUCS – to establish a world class HE sporting environment which would lead to the most successful and active student population in the world– brought together complementary work strands from both organisations. New outcomes were agreed upon, and they related not only to high quality competition structures which BUSA had excelled at for many years, alongside outstanding quality high performance sport infrastructures, which the HE sector had taken a national lead in, but also to be a leading player in sport development (to include healthy campuses, volunteering, coaching and participation), and a clear advocacy role on behalf of the sector to develop partnerships nationally and locally for the effective development of HE sport, as well as to represent the sector in industry, media and professional settings.

In simple terms, BUCS was created to positively enhance the student experience through sport – a central tenet to which the organisation has returned consistently when challenging and refining its priorities and preferred outcomes.

BUCS was launched as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status, and whilst it did retain some of the committee structures and philosophies of its founder organisations, the organisational structure was deliberately innovative, in that a small non executive Board lead the direction and policy, with strategy and operations being the responsibility of an executive management group (with decision making remit), advised by third party member groups which, whilst they did not have decision making power, were tasked with influencing and advising the company through strong membership representation. This remains in place today, and has enabled an open, transparent and accountable organisation to develop, which is run through professional business processes and has been able to attract high quality talent to its management and staff teams.

Some financial challenges were evident at the outset. Poor financial management and inadequate systems left an unplanned operating loss of £250k at the end of FY2007/8, and a weak balance sheet with inadequate reserves. Stringent financial controls resulted with corresponding organisational adjustments.

  1. The situation so far.
  1. Sport Programmes

Much has been achieved in the four years since BUCS was created. Structural changes around sport programmes delivery have created functional expertise in event, competition and strategic sport management; BUCS has an overarching strategy for sport for the first time, and has recently opened applications for the first new BUCS sports for some years. Most BUCS sports have an individual strategy, and BUCS direct relationships with NGB’s have been strengthened to a previously unknown level. Team and individual entries have grown by around 1 to 2 per cent year on year for each of the past 4 years, and the quality of experience delivered is (anecdotally) improving continuously. The BUCS Championships has developed into a “must do” sporting experience, and a number of high profile sports have attracted unprecedented attendances with the experience enhanced in innovative ways – the surfing event is now the biggest in Europe and attracts four times as many spectators as competitors. Members benefit from a bespoke fixtures and results system which has streamlined and simplified the entry process (albeit with additional input from members and a significant financial investment), and new Sports Advisory Groups have been put in place to further improve the quality of experience into the future.

  1. Sport Development

Sport Development (SD) activity on a national basis is entirely new, 100% funded by Sport England currently, and providing them support in delivering a projected 150,000 new participants, in 50 projects impacting over 70 member institutions through Active Universities, a £10 million lottery funding round. This investment directly into the sector for the first time, coupled with the investment into the BUCS SD department represents a very tangible value to the sector from the relationship BUCS has established with Sport England.

BUCS staff now represent members on several industry boards and groups, including Sports Coach UK, Volunteering England, Running Sports, amongst others, and the relationship with Sport England is stronger than it has ever been. The Home Nations executive groups (BUCS Wales and SSS) perform similar high level advocacy roles directly with devolved sport council Chief Executives. The SD department also leads on demonstrating the value of sport to students (an essential component of the employability issue and its link to sport engagement), and is acting as torchbearer for members on including sport for the first time in the Higher Education Academic Record (HEAR) programme. Alongside the football development activity funded by the FA, the English Sport development work funded by Sport England, BUCS has secured funding for a UK wide disability post which has seen disabled athletes competing for BUCS points alongside non disabled athletes in swimming, athletics and cycling. All these investments have recently been confirmed as ongoing by the external funding partners due to their overwhelming successes. Organisational relationships with NGB’s have also changed through this facilitated engagement. NGB’s are increasingly keen to work with HEI’s and the current whole sport planning process (in England) includes more NGB’s than ever before, with already strong relationships in Scotland, lead by SSS and BUCS Wales leading on direct partnerships with NGB’s in the Principality.

Healthy lifestyles is an important theme of the work of the sector, and BUCS supports this through best practice sharing and professional development events.

  1. Advocacy and Influencing

Effectiveness in advocacy initiatives is less easy to evidence – however member feedback suggests they believe this work is going well, and media presence is at its highest ever, with press and broadcast media building well (partly through a formal agreement sponsored by Red Bull, and partly through news story generation from the CCM team internally and a PR Agency arrangement) Certainly HE appears to have a louder voice and be included more often in sector debates, and staff and Board engagement in the broader sports landscape is more comprehensive than 4 years ago. A strong partnership has been developed with Sport England which has provided significant beneficial outputs to many English members, andeEngagement with UK Sport, Youth Sport Trust, all of the national sports boards across the UK, the above named landscape partners, are all covered by new staff-lead relationships, and emerging partnerships with UUK (to access the vitally important Vice Chancellor network), LOCOG, The BOA, The Research councilss and others underpin this activity. Board and senior staff non executive directorships and paid appointments include the Times Higher Editorial Board, The London South Bank Court, London Youth Games, Economic and Social Research Council, Podium, Healthy Universities Leadership Group, Student Loans Committee, HEFCE, UK Anti Doping Board, and numerous commercial and non governmental agencies covered by board and influential partners. BUCS seems to be “at the table” in a much more proactive and recognised way, taken seriously by landscape players, and included more often in consultations, conferences and joint activities. Most obvious is the proactive approaches made directly to BUCS and its members by NGB’s who recognise the benefits that can be gained by working with HE. That said, more can and should be achieved by this work, and more influence is sought by members in future.

  1. Members and Engagement

Member engagement has been a consistent challenge, and remains a priority for BUCS. A piece of research commissioned in 2010/11 is guiding activity here, and measurable improvements are anticipated following a planned review in 2011/12. Specific communication channels have been developed for targeted groups and these have been successful, and a senior manager’s network provides opportunities for best practice sharing and professional networking. A range of professional development events complement the sport programmes and provide coaching and development, volunteering and workforce, leadership and professional development workshops for a broad range of staff who work in the sector. A comprehensive conference programme has been developed to deliver appropriate content for all members, and this annual event now incorporates AGM and a new BUCS Awards dinner and ball.

Sabbatical officers continue to prove a hard to reach group, with lower than expected engagement in formal and informal groups, and it is recognised that more engagement still should be solicited from the many industry experts within the sector.

  1. Commercial and Communications

The organisations commercial focus has grown and developed over the 4 year cycle. BUCS Trading, a wholly owned subsidiary of BUCS, allows commercial incomes to be generated and “profit” to be made and gifted into BUCS, hence removing the requirement to pay corporation tax. Commercial incomes have grown from simple sponsorships to a more sophisticated (and less risky) royalty, advertising and sponsorship mix, and the investment in a new website in 2008 has ensured BUCS can benefit from social media and internet generated income streams. Total commercial income has trebled from £155kin 2008 to £450k in 2011/12.

BUCS communicates with many more members and service users directly than ever before. BUCS Essentials and Business Essentials both reach 2000 or so individual subscribers, and the Facebook and twitter feeds are growing exponentially. BUCS Life, originally a glossy magazine with a print run of 600 people has changed into a digimag, with a subscription list of members and managers in the sector of over 1,500.

  1. Financial

Whilst incomes have increased by almost 50% since 2007/8, employment numbers and costs have risen too, but more slowly. From an original headcount of 20, establishment has grown by 40% to 28. Sport (plus 2), sport development (plus 3), commercial and communications (plus 2) and disability sport provide the headcount increase, and whilst employment costs have effectively increased by £140k, it should be noted that the increases have been achieved without placing additional resource pressures onto membership fees. (for clarity, Sport England, HEFCE and the FAhave largely funded the new sport development and disability functions, and transfer of spend from Fasttrack agency to higher headcount in the sport department has enabled the structural changes in the sport department without incurring higher organisational costs).

The financial strength of the organisation has improved significantly, with a 34% improvement in reserves.

  1. Environment, Opportunities and Challenges.
  1. HE Environment

Significant landscape changes have occurred since 2008, not least of which are the impacts of the HE White paper on HE finance and regulation, “Students at the heart of the system”. That this has placed unprecedented demands on HE institutions to deliver an enhanced student experience is certain – what is less clear is how sport in higher education will fare as a recognised and valuable part of this experience. We believe that sport should be recognised as making a real and measurable positive impact on the student experience. The question for us is how can we prove it?

The components of an outstanding student experience rely upon the provision of outstanding service, and our members believe that sport contributes in a range of ways to that experience. As sport is seen more as an integral part of the service provision, it makes it more valuable to the university itself in becoming part of the university brand and impacting upon its reputation. Operating in effectively competitive markets (trying to attract the best students), HEI’s will be focussing on how their own brand is seen in the marketplace – in terms especially of the ultimate output, that is, graduate employability. The skills agenda therefore becomes central to any “offer” made to students whilst in HE, and sport is a powerful vehicle to deliver leadership, teamwork and other key skills traditionally linked to employability.

Being able to demonstrate an association between sport and employability, therefore, is a key desire of our members.

  1. The UK Economy

The UK economic landscape, moving families and organisations into financial hardship, has placed greater emphasis on strong financial management as well as a need for organisations to create new income generating routes. BUCS is not immune, and despite steadily increasing income from competition entries, and significant commercial successes greater emphasis will be placed on commercial relationships and activities. In a very challenging sponsorship market, new commercial income streams need to be balanced with higher value expectations – meaning that continued growth in commercial incomes is unlikely without marked and obvious payback for the sponsor or partner. This is not to suggest that new partners are not possible – raised profile is clearly paying off – however a step change in delivery or brand profile will be needed, as well as the ability to communicate directly with members and students, to produce a significant improvement in commercial incomes.

Members have expressed caution around the development of commercial relationships and the perception that this may mean compromising the organisational values in some way. Whilst this is understandable, the strong desire to continuously increase services and improve output, plus a reticence to cease providing any current services (save general support to remove some minor and fringe sports), alongside significant external financial pressures and the unlikelihood of sustainable externally funded activity suggest a real need for the organisation to embrace commercial relationships more proactively. This does not only mean “selling” more sports, but properly leveraging all BUCS properties (including media), with members agreement. Indeed, if members do not wish to pay more themselves for additional services, then commercial income streams will be necessary to sustain, let alone grow the membership benefits.

Fully developing and leveraging appropriate commercial and rights opportunities will therefore be key to securing financial stability in a very unsettled national financial landscape.