Universities Week is a national campaign to increase public awareness of the wide and varied role the UK’s universities play. This year it is focusing on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
To coincide with the campaign, we have launched a dedicated Olympics area of our website to tell the story of our involvement in the Games, and shine a light on some of the individual athletes, staff, students and alumni who have key roles in both the build-up and delivery of London 2012.
‘Olympic and Paralympic Games: Our story’ covers all aspects of the Games: from the elite UK and international athletes basing their training at Bath to the science and research behind elite performance; from alumni who have helped to design the state-of-the-art velodrome to a student playing a part in the opening ceremony.
Bath’s Olympic hero Jason Gardener and Paralympian medallist Ben Rushgrove have joined high profile ambassadors which include Lord Seb Coe, John Inverdale and Dame Kelly Holmes to support Universities Week. They have given interviews about the importance of universities to London 2012 and UK sport, as part of a series of ‘Talking Head’ films created especially for the campaign.
Our academics will feature in two national reports that will be launched at a Parliamentary event on Wednesday 2 May to showcase the diverse contribution universities are making to the Games, including how university research and developments underpin sporting success.
Universities Week will culminate in the BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) Outdoor Athletics Championships, which will be held in the Olympic Stadium as part of the London Prepares series. Fifty students from Bath will take part in the event and be some of the first athletes to compete in the new stadium.
“Universities Week 2012 is an excellent opportunity to showcase some of the fantastic work universities are contributing to the world of sport”
— Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell, the University’s Vice-Chancellor.
“For a University with a proud tradition in sporting excellence, both in terms of performance and research, we are very excited about the key role we will play in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. Our London 2012 story goes well beyond sporting performance, stretching into all aspects of the Games, and the new area of our website will help to tell this story.”
Universities Week is coordinated by Universities UK and BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport). Nicola Dandridge, Universities UK’s Chief Executive, added “From supporting top athletes to providing training facilities for students and local communities, producing world-class sporting research and hosting Olympic teams from across the globe, universities are working together to contribute to the UK’s Olympic effort.
“Once again with Universities Week we hope to show that it is not just students who benefit from university, but the whole of UK society.”