They now form the British Universities Sports Association (BUCS). The new national body has been set up to enhance the university sporting experience specifically for those at an elite level. In addition, BUCS aims to raise the profile of sport within higher education so that it is seen as a worthy cause for business investment, with BUCS’ new message being: ‘Higher education must drive the business case for sport’. With 153 affiliated universities across the country, BUCS intends to develop their communication between the universities to improve sport and physical activity for many students across Britain.

BUCS has three key strategies to implement. Firstly: participation, by engaging with more students, staff and local communities playing in sport or with access to sport. Secondly: competition, through delivering a high-quality sports programmes for university clubs and teams in 50 different sports. Thirdly: performance, whilst supporting members through offering university-based athletes world-class facilities and coaching.

Despite fundamentally restructuring the running of BUCS, the majority of university athletes are unlikely to see any changes. The merger was designed to attract media attention, but with many students taking several months to realise that BUSA was in fact BUCS, and no national media coverage of the event, this intention already seems to have failed.

From the official launch party of BUCS on 30th October 2008, it is clear that the new association is designed to produce more talented and successful athletes for the London 2012 Olympics, through the provision of opportunities and support. A key noticeable change was the improvement of communication between universities and the government, who is offering additional support to elite athletes in higher education. Was the merger really necessary though? With current schemes such as the Talented Athletics Sponsorship Scheme (TASS), and sports bursaries currently being offered by practically all universities, the additional benefits of this new merger is questionable, and leads to the belief that BUCS should perhaps just continue to aid all areas of university sport and not just specific sections. Research by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Federation (2008) has indicated that to get more females involved in sport there needs to be a cultural change in sport so that ‘being active is attractive’ and not just provide a few new facilities. Consequently, it may be deemed that BUCS’ priorities should lie in the grass root level of sport and getting people involved, which would be beneficial to far more people as opposed to assisting a few elite athletes that already have support from external sources. This leads to the questioning of BUCS’ priorities. Is the organisation still continuing to facilitate all universities in sporting opportunities, or has its priorities shifted to solely concentrate on elite sport? BUSA’s original mission was to provide university students with the opportunity to play sport. With BUCS now changing its focus to aid elite sport in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics however, care must be taken to not lose sight of the original goal.

BUCS aims to draw upon expertise and experience from the two former representative bodies, to provide a new unified voice for sport, fitness and physical activity at university campuses. Aspiring to offer a comprehensive, multi-sport competition structure, and manage the development of programmes, services and facilities for participation, grass-roots sports through to elite, high-performance athletes. However, was this not what BUSA was aiming to achieve initially, and if so why was the merger necessary? Should the government not just fulfil its London 2012 objectives on its own? As university students involved in sport we shall be the true ones to identify whether BUCS is able to continue to aid all in sport, or whether this objective has been thrown aside to aid a mere few who are already close to the top.