London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games

The HE sector’s contribution to the London 2012 Games played an integral role in its success. Engagement spanned many areas, including providing student volunteers, athletes, coaches, playing hosts to national teams and leading in groundbreaking research. This engagement is chronicled in ‘Legacy Live’, a report by Podium. 

Throughout the games HE engagement was monitored through stakeholder surveys. These were undertaken by the Centre for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research (SPEAR) at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Podium

HEFCE, HEFCW and the Skills Funding Agency  jointly funded Podium, a co-ordination and communications unit to support the HE and further education sectors in their work relating to the 2012 Games.

Podium aimed to communicate within the HE and further education sectors and with outside agencies about the potential for universities and colleges to support the successful staging and delivery of the London 2012 Games and to help create a lasting legacy.

Podium facilitated collaborative work and the sharing of best practice within the sectors (and their communities) in order to develop projects and events which maximised the benefits of hosting the Games.

• More about Podium

In 2013 HEFCE and the Skills Funding Agency awarded transitional funding to Podium to help universities and colleges capitalise on their Olympic experience.

Throughout the games the HE sector demonstrated their skills and abilities in engaging with, and delivering, a global event. It is this on which Podium hopes to build.

Podium will use the funding to:

• capture the expertise developed by HEIs through their engagement with London 2012 in a comprehensive record
• help maximise the opportunities available to HEIs to engage with organisers of forthcoming sporting and cultural mega-events, including the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Be A Champion

We contributed funding to this collaborative, volunteering project between the National Union of Students and Coca Cola. The project aimed to engage students with the Games and stimulate their enthusiasm.

It provided tools to students and students unions, including training for Union staff and officers, in order for them to achieve this. It established a network of Student Ambassadors and provided accreditation to Student Unions across the United Kingdom.

• More about the project

Other funded projects

We have supported a number of Olympics-related HE projects. These include:

• Creative Campus – led by universities in the South East
  Creative Campus aims to create a lasting legacy of social, economic and cultural collaboration within higher education by bringing young people together from diverse cultural backgrounds in the production of new and innovative forms of creative and performing arts.
• Regional Educational Legacy in Arts and Youth Sports (RELAYS) – led by universities in the South West
  RELAYS aims to create a lasting legacy of engaged and upskilled young people, improved education provision, new sustainable festivals and events, an enhanced regional cultural tourism offer and successfully engaged businesses.
• Volunteering 2012 – led by universities in the North West
  Volunteering 2012 aims to facilitate the development and delivery of higher-level sport volunteering and coaching skills to meet the needs of North West sport community partners.
• Tackling Social Inclusion issues – led by Sports Universities in North East England (SUNEE) 
  SUNEE aims to enable the universities to make a step change in the way in which their community engagement and outreach activities contribute to tackling social inclusion issues.
• Sports Disability Officer – led by University of Nottingham and British University Sports and Colleges
  Our funding will be used to support a Sports Disability Officer post to assess barriers to participation in sport among students with disabilities, and develop work to overcome these barriers.

Further information

For further information about HEFCE's involvement in the 2012 Games please contact Rebecca Jackson , tel 0117 931 7440, e-mail r.jackson@hefce.ac.uk .

Page last updated 25 February 2013