Participation in routine physical activity, sport, and gym membership significantly improves university students’ individual well-being, mental health, social inclusion, perceived academic attainment, and employability compared to inactive peers.
This was the main finding of the 2017/18 British Active Students Survey, carried out across 104 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with 6,891 students polled between November and December 2017.
The key findings were:
· Supporting regular physical activity, sports, or gym access boosts personal and psychological well-being.
· Highly active students report superior psychological well-being scores relative to fairly active or inactive peers.
· Active students experience higher levels of social inclusion.
· Active students perceive themselves as more likely to achieve high academic attainment.
· Active students rate their employability higher—particularly in "teamwork" and "drive"—and show greater confidence in obtaining employment within six months of graduation.
These results correspond with recent studies that argue that consistency in physical exercise improves self-efficacy and cushions the effects of mental stress (López-Valenciano et al., 2021).
However, the 2017/18 survey revealed notable barriers to an active lifestyle:
· Being over-busy with academic studies (74–79%)
· Social commitments (23%)
· Financial costs of physical activity (23%)
· Perceived lack of university support (4%)
· Lack of body confidence and feeling unwelcome (predominantly among female students)
It is therefore evident that investment in student fitness offers mental health, community participation, academic confidence, and career readiness benefits. Therefore, addressing participation barriers is fundamental to promoting greater cross-sectional learner participation.
The 2017/18 British Active Students Survey serves as an actionable baseline model for Caribbean HEIs—such as the UWI (University of the West Indies), UTT (University of Trinidad and Tobago), and USC (University of the Southern Caribbean)—to collaborate on collecting localised baseline data. This effort is important following the prolonged disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted face-to-face learning and social interaction for over two years and may have contributed to a decline in overall student physical activity levels.
By creating strong baseline data, tertiary institutions can develop specific intervention programmes while developing existing ones to increase and sustain physical activity across the student population.
