St Mary’s Named as one of Top Universities for Sport

St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, has been named by Which? as one of the UK’s top universities for sport. Views from more than 16,000 university students were compiled by Which? University, which launched last year as a free and independent website to help students make more informed decisions about higher education. Which? Asked students to rate their institution on a range of services and extra-curricular activities including clubs and societies, political scenes and nightlife. From the responses, St Mary’s emerged as one of the top institutions for sport in the UK, offering a multitude of clubs and societies along with state-of-the-art sports facilities and training on campus. The University College is one of London’s top-performing sports institutions with a new £8.5 million sports centre, which was home to athletes from 10 teams during the London 2012 Olympic Games and is a regular training ground for many international athletes, including alumni such as Mo Farah, Andrew Osagie and Ross Murray. Whilst St Mary’s is known for its elite sports programmes, the University College is committed to student and community sports and the Students’ Union offers more than 20 sports clubs and societies including rugby union, hockey and football. In addition Sport St Mary’s offers community initiatives such as the No Strings Badminton scheme, which is run in conjunction with Badminton England. A number of sports scholarships are also available to undergraduate students, including the recently launched Mo Farah Academy, which provides financial and technical support for the elite sports training programmes at St Mary’s. It is the first initiative of its kind in the UK and is designed to encourage home-grown sporting talent and build on the London 2012 Olympic Legacy. St Mary’s Vice-Principal Dr Claire Taylor said, “We are really proud of the quality of the student experience at St Mary’s and we continue to look for ways to further enhance learning, teaching and research across all courses at the University College. In addition, our students are well supported as they consider their options beyond graduation. We perform well in terms of student employability, with 94 per cent of our students in employment or further study six months after graduating.” Andrew Reid-Smith, Director for Sport at the University College added, “St Mary’s students enjoy using world-class sports facilities and a distinctive sports programme that combines promotion of lifelong participation with supporting performance at the very highest level. As a performer, coach or volunteer there are numerous opportunities to get involved all of which help to enhance the student experience.”