Universities at Medway & GK Unions – Student Research

Over the past few years student sports participation at Medway both at a recreational and competitive level has been in decline, and despite a slight increase across 2016-17, participation levels continued to decline and cause concern.

Research to date suggested there were a number of barriers to participation for students, which included, but were not limited to: cost; facilities and time. However, the senior management team were all of the opinion that there were many more underlying reasons that had not been exposed.

As a result, in 2018, the Universities at Medway and their respective Unions tendered a comprehensive research project to better understand the demand by both students and staff for sport and recreational activity and facilities. In February 2018, Nina & Co. was engaged to carry out the research and given the following brief:

1. Ensure the research was fully representative of the c. 9,000 students who study at the Universities of Kent, Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church and the recommendations enabled the development of an options appraisal up to RIBA stage 2 if required.
2. Finalise research methodologies to enable the client to quantify and qualify demand for enhancements to facilities, improvements to student groups funding and partnership agreements with a range of local providers.
3. Analysis and interpretation of survey results, as well as existing data for the development of a high level summary with recommendations for the short, medium and long-term.
4. Work in partnership with the University of Greenwich Estates team and/or architects to develop a business case and low, medium, high options appraisal if appropriate.

Results

“Nina’s tender response was absolutely spot on, in particular her suggestions for engaging with the students were very impressive and really stood out above the other companies. When combined with her extensive knowledge of students, Medway’s unique set up and sports it was a very easy decision to engage her on this project.

Although the original brief only stipulated a web survey Nina also included several other research methods (focus groups, on campus interviews, etc.) in her proposal so that we could ensure sound qualitative and quantitative data from our users, lapsed users, staff and more importantly non-user groups. In total 23% of Medway students participated in the research giving us a truly representative sample and our highest participation level ever.

The resulting research presentation and reports were extremely comprehensive and very through. They highlighted a range of strategies for the mid and long term and they also highlighted several quick wins such as the interactive digital map which has already improved communication between the 3 Universities, GK Unions, students and staff immensely, we are also now in discussions with third party partners and forging better deals for our students.“

Ali Chambers, Head of GK Unions Partnership.