Best UK universities for sport

[thing47]

Anyone see this weekend's article about the top universities for sport in the UK? It was on the back of talking about The Boat Race but made the point that neither Oxford nor Cambridge are in the overall top 10 for sport any more (although still very strong in rowing). Not obviously a massive issue for the vast majority of students, but an interesting stat nonetheless.

Ahh that’s really helpful to know. He plays traditional cricket at county level and national level for indoor cricket too. He has been invited to play hockey, badminton and squash at representative level on more than one occasion but turned it down due to the clash with other commitments. He also plays rugby but is not as strong with that as the other sports. I will encourage him to look into the specific requirements for Loughborough more closely, thank you for the heads up. I genuinely never thought he would need more than one sporting discipline at elite level.

Yay, he should be fine then. Good plan to look in to it now just in case. I thoroughly loved Loughborough so would definitely recommend it.

To get into Loughborough you don't need to be good at sport. It's not something they know about when making offers. You do need good grades though. My DS has an offer for maths with economics for AAA or A star AB.
Once there to play for the first team you need to be the very best for most popular sports. That does not mean you can't play for more social teams or hall etc.

Loughborough offers can be slightly reduced if you are good at sport though and it doesn’t have to be for more than one sport at elite level.

But you won’t have a blue if you haven’t been to Oxbridge and, depressingly, that still means something in some circles - even if the blue is in a really random sport!
If you want to play sport at Uni, then Uni selection becomes quite tricky especially if (like DD) you want to play at something above hall level but, by the time you take into account all of the undergrads and post grads, you might not make the first team. We’re trying to identify universities which have an official second & third team as well as just a first team as then, if she isn’t quite good enough, there is something to do other than be constantly rejected & sit on the sidelines. It’s not that easy figuring all of this out though!

Birmingham does - but you still need to be very good to get in the second and third teams (It's a huge uni!). Birmingham does, however, have teams affiliated to the halls and to various subjects (eg medics).

@Obeseandashamed firstly your DS does not need any sporting ability as such to get a place to study at Loughborough. So the uni requirements will not include sporting prowess, don't worry. It will be A levels and GCSEs like everywhere. Plenty of non-sportspeople go to Loughborough to study – it’s a great uni.

He also does not need to be at elite level in more than one sport to compete for the uni, even at BUCS level. That PP is talking about the 1990s, so things may have changed. In any case they were talking about a specific sport; as I say, requirements will vary. DS's team definitely took on total rookies who had never played the sport before.

It is categorically not the case that all first-team BUCS competitors at Lboro are elite level in another sport as well. What, so a 100m sprinter is also a great cricketer? That great GB U21 rugby player also long jumps 8m? Not the case (obviously, as it would be impossible tbf) I am happy to reassure your DS.

I think for sport at Uni it’s really important for YP to understand the standard and depth for their sport because YP can underestimate the standard required to make the university squad so the “best” Uni might not be “best” for them if they don’t make university squads and there’s no college/ halls league. Like my DS is a “ school A team all rounder” - he really enjoys it all socially- he wouldn’t make BUcS teams but he’d be gutted if there wasn’t a way just to carry on playing regularly.

re Oxbridge, I can’t comment on Oxford but certainly at Cambridge they’re not as strong as they were, largely due to massive shifts in admissions policies to prioritise academics to the exclusion of everything else. The college sport has really thinned out which is a shame- my college used to be a stronghold for both men’s and women’s rugby and now they have a clustered men’s team ( 3 colleges putting one team out together) and there’s no women’s college rugby at all despite the women’s game growing across the same time period.

DS has rowed for GB and is now at university in the US. Lots of elite UK rowers get recruited by the US colleges. If he had stayed in the UK he'd have probably gone to Nottingham or Edinburgh.

You definitely don’t need two different sports. My son received an offer with just one county level sport (for 2027 entry)

And in fact, unless his offer is reduced because of the sporting achievement he can offer, which as noted can happen of course (is his offer related to his county-level ability?), you can get an offer to study for a degree at Loughborough without any sporting ability at all. Great GCSE and A level grades will do it.

Yes Loughborough wants to keep winning BUCS but it also need to fill about 5,000 first-year slots each September, so realistically those prospective students cannot all be competing in sport at an elite or even at county level.

My son has an offer from Loughborough and has friends there.

No high level sporting ability is needed to get an offer. There are a few foundation courses at BBC for elite international level athletes from memory and sports scholarships available as well.

Get the impression that there are lots of opportunities to play all kinds of sports but students need to be at a really high level to make the BUCS teams for most sports.

I’m quite surprised nobody has suggested Stirling University! It’s got an excellent reputation for sports.

DS is at Bath. He says the first rugby team is full of people who have been in a local academy or the actual rugby team. I am not sure anyone rocked up on the first day as an unknown.
The gym and sporting facilities are amazing though. If you want to do a top sport at high level speak to the coaches about who they are looking at.
We looked around l’boro and didn’t like it as the sports tour only referenced the high level achievers. Made no reference to the more fun and social aspect of playing at the uni.

Because MN is southeast England focussed. So, e.g. you rarely see anyone talking about Glasgow Uni for academics despite it being a top research university with a long history but they rave over smaller, less prestigious universities in pretty towns.

I think this is part of the wider picture of there being many more pathways to excellence than there used to be. Back in the day, the old school tie was the key to a lot of success and Oxbridge had a stranglehold on most elite opportunities. As they have got more competitive, that's no longer possible. Plus Oxbridge is viewed as old fashioned in its structure by some, and people can't be bothered with the faffy admissions process when they can get better facilities without submitting an early application, researching a college, sitting an exam, going to interview etc.

I mentioned Stirling, it deffo punches in athletics. A YP we know went there and really enjoyed it.

And tennis too.

A friend went to Loughborough to study economics - she was also a county level tennis player and couldn't even get into the 3rd team in her 1st year!

Stirling for swimming too.

Stirling 12th and Glasgow 24th on sports list.

One of the issues right at the top of university sport is that the top division is UK-wide. So if you're competing in, say, athletics at Stirling you might have to travel to Bath (and vice versa of course). That's quite a commitment to make midweek and may not even be possible depending on your academic timetable. Lower down the pyramid, sport is regionalised.

Tbf the big BUCS finals tend to be centralised and at the weekend apart from the BUCS Wednesday. That was at Lboro this year and has been at Nottingham before.

Sheffield EIS hosts several indoor events in Feb over a weekend (athletics, badminton, swimming (not at EIS!, at Ponds Forge).

That said, outdoor athletics is in Cardiff this year which I agree is not ideal if you are at uni in Aberdeen (actual convo I had with an athlete in Feb).

Many athletes are used to travelling though for competitions and country based training so although not ideal it is something they do now. Certainly at a high level many of our dc go a distance for regular training and training camps. There is huge opportunities to excel in sport at uni. Ds1 started a completely new sport and got to a high level by the end of uni and loved the chance to do something completely different that he had not had access to before .

I forgot Edinburgh as being good for swimming too (PS I did say Stirling earlier ;))

Agree entirely that you don't need either to be good at sport to get an offer from Loughborough in the first place or if you are that you need to play more than one sport at elite level. DD is yr 1 at Loughborough and although she is classed as elite (Plays GB), is in BUCS 1 team and won the national title on BUCS big wednesday last month she doesn't play another sport at all - simply wouldn't have time with 2 hr daily training and her workload. The sports level is staggeringly high for the most popular sports though and so there were a lot of disappointed people after trials at the beginning of the academic year. People who may have been the best player at their club and then can't get in any of the BUCS teams (and some sports run 5 teams) so it can come as a shock to some.

Well done to your DD!

Yes it is a shock to some - this was ds with football in his first year - hence his sport switch.