Â鶹´«Ã½ investing £30 million in sport Published on: 15 July 2016 Â鶹´«Ã½ is investing over £30m in new state–of-the-art sports facilities and launching a new sport and exercise science degree to further boost its position among the top in the country. The University’s governing council has agreed the investment to secure Â鶹´«Ã½’s place as one of the top sporting universities in the UK. Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Learning and Teaching, Professor Suzanne Cholerton said: “This investment exemplifies the significant commitment from Â鶹´«Ã½ to providing excellent opportunities for our students to engage in sport. These new facilities alongside our existing top class professional support will serve to enhance the outstanding sporting talent at Â鶹´«Ã½ and attract gifted sportsmen and women to study at our world-class university. “We have seen outstanding performances this year with Â鶹´«Ã½ finishing 9th in the British Universities and College Sport (BUCS) rankings, and this investment will enable us to provide amenities to ensure we continue to support our top-performing teams and individual athletes.” BSc Sports and Exercise Science degree The university’s outstanding performances on the sports field will soon be backed up with a new undergraduate programme. Led by Emma Stevenson, Professor of Sports and Exercise Science, applications are already being received for the first intake in September 2017. She said: “Drawing on our expertise in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the degree has a strong science focus. We cover the disciplines that underpin human health and exercise performance including exercise physiology, nutrition, psychology and biomechanics. “The practical application of the science is also an extremely important part of the degree programme. The new facilities will provide students with the opportunity to work with Team Â鶹´«Ã½ athletes applying their knowledge to enhance performance in a professional setting. “Uniquely, as a National Centre of Excellence in biomedical research, we will be able to provide expert teaching at the cutting edge of the subject.” Proposed sports facilities The planned development of the existing sports centre at Richardson Road includes an eight court sports hall, four squash courts, a strength and conditioning suite and two exercise studios providing more opportunities for all students including Team Â鶹´«Ã½ athletes to both train and play. The exercise physiology and biomechanics laboratories, environmental chamber and gait track will ensure that students on the BSc Sports and Exercise Science Programme have access to state-of-the-art teaching and research sports science facilities. The site is already being redeveloped to provide high quality student accommodation. At the Cochrane Park Sports Ground, it is planned to create two artificial turf pitches, update and extend existing changing facilities and provide flexible social, meeting and office space. Outline planning permission to extend the Sports Centre was approved in December 2015 and full applications for the developments are intended to go to Â鶹´«Ã½ City council at the end of the month. Colin Blackburn, Director of said: “Our vision is to build Â鶹´«Ã½ into one of the top sporting universities in the UK. Our sports teams under the banner ‘e’ performed well across the board in all sport in the last year, with outstanding performances from our basketball, fencing, rowing, rugby union, squash and water polo clubs. This ensured that Â鶹´«Ã½ finished 9th in the (BUCS) rankings.” Expert teaching at the cutting edge of the subjectProfessor Emma Stevenson (pictured left) with a student Top 10Â鶹´«Ã½ finished 9th in the BUCS rankings State–of-the-art sports facilitiesÂ鶹´«Ã½ student training Share: Latest News Scientists unlock hidden driver of inflammatory bowel disease Scientists have linked a key genetic signal in inflammatory bowel disease to an immune response that shuts down inflammation control, enabling faster diagnosis and targeted treatments. published on: 15 June 2026 Funding system risks limiting genuine community collaboration A new policy paper written by researchers at Â鶹´«Ã½ warns that the way UK research is funded may be undermining efforts to create genuinely collaborative partnerships with communities. published on: 15 June 2026 Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from Â鶹´«Ã½ to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Facts and figures
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