British Active Student Survey 2019/20

Please note, this data was collected before the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent restrictions that were put in place and are not reflective of any changes that may have occurred due to the pandemic and restrictions imposed since.

Further Education

Findings to date have shown that, generally, physically active students report higher personal and mental wellbeing compared to fairly active or inactive students. Similar findings are also present in students who took part in sport and attended the gym, compared to students who did neither.

The majority of students (64.8%) within FE are active*, however this is lower than the national average for 16-24 year olds (74.1%) and 25-34 year olds (67.1%). The level of inactive students (25.6%) is also higher than the national averages for 16-24 and 25-34 year olds of 16.5% and 21.0% respectively.

Experiences of Exercise and Sport

When asked about their experience of exercise and sport, students reported that they:

• Understood the benefits of participation (92.5%)
• Enjoy participating in sport (73.3%)
• Feel they can improve knowledge through sport and exercise (68.2%)
• Feel confident when they play sport (56.7%)
• Find sport easy (49.7%)

However, it is important to note that the categories with the highest rating of ‘disagree or strongly disagree’ were:

• Confidence in participation (27.5%)
• Ease of participation (28.0%)

Active students ‘agreed or strongly agreed’ that they enjoyed taking part in sport and exercise at a higher rate than both fairly active and inactive students, however, for both these groups the levels of agreement were still high (67.1% and 53.2% respectively).

Personal and Mental Wellbeing

Personal wellbeing amongst FE students was worse than nationally representative data, but it has remained consistent with the 2018/19 survey, the greatest changing being in anxiety levels.

Personal Wellbeing scores have improved for inactive students and for those taking part in just gym or neither gym nor sport, but they have worsened for fairly active and active students. Overall, active students had higher personal wellbeing scores, interestingly however, feelings of anxiety were lowest amongst inactive students.

Mental wellbeing of the student population has remained at a constant level, however this is below nationally representative comparison data. Active students reported the highest levels of mental wellbeing (21.6 out of 35) with fairly active and inactive students having similar scores (20.4 and 20.6 respectively). Ultimately, analysis shows that more active students were at higher odds of having higher mental wellbeing.

For both personal and mental wellbeing taking part in both gym and sport had the highest scores followed by just sport, just gym and neither gym nor sport.

Social Inclusion

Active students most frequently reported ‘never or rarely’ feeling;

• That people barely know me (45.9%).
• Isolated (54.6%)
• That people are around me but not with me (50.2%).

It’s important to note that whilst inactive students scored lower on these measures than active students, it was the fairly active students who scored the lowest.

Furthermore, the majority of students felt they belonged to their institution with the greatest sense of belonging being amongst active students (60.2%). Students were also asked about whether taking part in sport or physical activity has changed their feelings about their future. The most frequent answer for active students was ‘a lot or a little’ (40.3%), however, amongst fairly active and inactive student ‘not at all or not really’ were the most frequent responses (53.1% and 57.6% respectively).

Loneliness

FE students reported loneliness to a greater degree that the overall population with 13.2% of students ‘often or always’ feeling lonely in comparison 12.6% of 16-24 year olds and 8.4% of 25-34 year olds.

• Active students had the highest rating of ‘occasionally’ (27.2%) or ‘hardly ever’ (25.1%) feeling lonely.
• Fairly active students most frequently rated feeling lonely ‘some of the time’ (29.6%) or ‘often or always’ (16.0%).
• Inactive students rated ‘never’ feeling lonely the most frequently of the groups (11.4%).

Analysis of all responses showed that students with higher physical activity levels were at decreased odds of feeling lonely.

Perceptions of Attainment

Active students generally predicted their attainment to be higher than fairly active and inactive students, however upon further analysis there was found to be no relationship between physical activity and perceptions of attainment.

In relation to types of activity, students who take part in just gym or both gym and sport reported higher expected grades, whilst those who take part in just sport recorded the highest responses within the lowest attainment category.

Employability

Student confidence in being employed within six months of completing their course was higher than the 2018/19 survey with active students being the most confident in finding employment (51.9%). It is important to note that irrespective of activity level there was only a small proportion of students who lacked confidence in finding employment.

Motivations and Barriers

The motivations for FE students to be active are broad with the biggest motivators being;

• To improve physical health (16.3%)
• To improve body image (13.2%)
• As a stress relief (10.7%).

Compared to the previous survey, the largest growth has been to help with health and wellbeing which has increased from 7.7% to 8.4%.

Motivations also vary between genders. Females reported higher motivations than males within;

• Stress relief (11.6% of females vs 9.8% of males)
• Improving body image (14.3% vs 12.1%)
• Helping with mental health and wellbeing (9.4% vs 7.2%)
• A distraction from work (8.1% vs 7.2%).

Males reported higher motivations than females within;

• Enjoyment of activity (11.0% of males compared to 8.5% of females)
• To spend time with friends (7.4% vs 5.6%)
• To learn new skills (6.0 vs 4.6%)
• To help leadership skills (3.2% vs 1.8%).

The most significant barrier was students being too busy (26.7%) followed by body confidence/image (12.1%). The third most commonly cited barrier was no barriers which over one in ten students chose.

It is promising to note that accessibility or inclusivity (0.0% n=3) and lack of support from university or college (1.2%) were not common barriers to participation in sport and physical activity. The biggest differences in barriers by genders were seen in body confidence/image (13.8% of females vs. 8.7% of males) whilst too busy socialising was more common amongst male students (9.0% of males vs. 7.6% of females).

The full report can be found here.

*Achieving 150 minutes of physical activity a week. Please note that the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) guidelines for adults were used to allow for comparison with the national Adult Active Lives data, CMO guidelines suggest that 16-18 year olds are measured against the children’s guidelines.

Higher Education

The latest British Active Students Survey has found that students in HE who are active (150+ minutes a week), as well as those who take part in both sport and gym, have the greatest benefits to their: mental wellbeing; social inclusion; loneliness and social trust; and academic attainment and employability perceptions. However, it is important to note that personal and mental wellbeing scores lower amongst students than the national population (amongst 16-24 and 25-34 year olds), thus highlighting the need to support students within these areas.

The majority of HE students are active (76.4%) and this is higher than the national Active Lives data for 25-34 year olds (67.1%) and similar to activity levels of 16-24 year olds (74.1%). Inactivity levels are also lower amongst students (13.8%) than national average for both 16-24 year olds (16.5%) and 25-34 year olds (21.0%).

Experiences of Exercise and Sport

When asked about their experience of exercise and sport, students reported that they:

• Understood the benefits of participation (97.7%)
• Enjoy participating in sport (90.1%)
• Can improve their skills by taking part (74.6%)
• Feel confident when they play sport (72.5%)
• Find sport easy (53.5%).

However, it is important to note that the categories with the highest rating of ‘disagree or strongly disagree’ were:

• Confidence in participation (16.2%)
• Ease of participation (28.1%).

Active students ‘agreed or strongly’ agreed with questions around enjoyment (93.3%) and confidence (75.5%) at a higher rate than both fairly active (85.9% and 60.3%) and inactive students (75.1% and 53.5%).

Personal and Mental Wellbeing

Personal wellbeing amongst HE students was worse than nationally representative data. However, life satisfaction, feeling worthwhile, and happiness were consistent with the 2017/18 survey whilst anxiety levels have worsened.

Mental wellbeing of the student population has remained constant but this is below nationally representative comparison data. Active students reported the highest levels of wellbeing (21.8 out of 25) with fairly active and inactive students having similar scores (20.6 and 20.8 respectively). Ultimately analysis shows that more active students were at higher odds of having higher mental wellbeing. For both personal and mental wellbeing participation in both gym and sport produces the highest scores followed by just sport, just gym and neither.

Social Inclusion

Active students most frequently reported ‘never or rarely’ feeling;

• That people barely know me (42.7%)
• Isolated (50.9%)
• That people are around me but not with me (49.8%).

Overall, this is showcasing that active students feel more socially included, this is in line with the 2017/18 report.

Furthermore, the majority of students felt they belonged to their institution with the greatest sense of belonging being among active students (69.0). When looking at activity type, sport and gym and just sport had similarly high rates of a sense of belonging (72.9% and 68.8%), this was followed by just gym (61.1%) and neither (56.3%).

Loneliness

Overall active students reported feeling lonely ‘occasionally’ (34.8%) and ‘hardly ever’ (23.9%) more frequently than both fairly active (32.5% and 20.0% respectively) and inactive (32.1% and 17.9%) students.

Perceptions of Attainment

Active students were the most likely to report that they studied for more than 25 hours a week (34.1%) compared to just 28.7% of inactive students. Those who study for less than 15 hours a week were more likely to be inactive (32.5%), this suggests that being active does not limit the time available for studying.

Employability

Six in ten active students were fairly confident or very confident that they would be employed within six months of finishing their course which was higher than both fairly active and inactive students.

Motivations and Barriers

The motivations to be active amongst HE students varies with the biggest motivators being;

• To improve physical health (14.4%)
• Stress relief (11.8%)
• To improve body image (11.1%).

Differences were found between the genders with females more likely to be active to improve their mental health and wellbeing (10.7% v 8.9%) and males were more likely to be motivated by spending time with their friends (7.1% v 5.8%).

The most prevalent barrier was being too busy with studies, with a third of students citing this as a barrier to being active. Activity options (13.8%) and being too busy with socialising (11.4%) were the next biggest barriers. It is promising to note that accessibility or inclusivity (0.0% n=5), a failure to enjoy being active (1.6%) and lack of support (1.9%) were all generally not perceived as barriers. Male students were more likely to not view there as being any barriers (10.0% v 3.5%).

The full report can be found here.