British Universities and Colleges Sport

These sports form part of the domestic BUCS competition:[6]

There are also a number of sports that BUCS works with to encourage student involvement that are not currently part of the main BUCS competition:[6]

• Baseball & Softball
• Handball
• Taekwondo
• Wakeboarding
• Weightlifting
• Wheelchair Basketball

BUCS currently has various sponsors across the organisation; Kukri Sports is the Official Teamwear Supplier to BUCS. Deloitte which has been associated with BUCS since 2012 . BUCS also has other sponsorship deals with Red Bull, Endsleigh, and Molten Sport.

BUCS awards points in all its competitions towards the 'BUCS Overall Championship' – a ranking of member universities' sporting achievements. The overall winner receives the Kerslake Trophy, first awarded in 1959 to Birmingham; Loughborough has won this every year since 1978–79.[11] Besides Loughborough, Birmingham have been champions 15 times, Manchester 4 times and Bristol once.[12]

Since 2002–03, Bath, Birmingham, Durham, Edinburgh and Leeds Met Carnegie have all achieved multiple top 3 finishes. Until 2005–06, only total points were given; in 2006–07 and 2007–08 this was broken down into "league" and "knockout", then from 2008–09 to 2010–11 into "team" and "individual". From 2011–12, "team" has been split into "league" and "cup". Until 2013–14, Loughborough scored highest in every category as well as highest overall. However, Durham has been top scorer in league competitions since 2013–14 and in cup competitions since 2014–15, although Loughborough's overwhelming dominance in individual competitions, particularly athletics and swimming, has enabled them to stay comfortably ahead in the overall table.[13]

Both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in no overall championship table for either season. The 2019-20 season was voided on April 20th 2020 with over 1,500 fixtures left to play, although some promotion and relegation was facilitated in 'finished leagues'.[14] The 2020-21 season never began, and was cancelled in January 2021.[15] No final points table was published in either season.

Diagram of administration history of student sport in the UK

BUCS is the latest manifestation of an association for the promotion of inter-university sport. Competition between various universities had existed for many decades before the twentieth century, notably the rivalries between Oxford and Cambridge, and those between the country's medical schools. However no association existed to oversee or promote more widespread inter-university competition.

In February 1918, the Presidents of University Unions conference in Manchester called for the need to establish such an association and the following year the Inter-Varsity Board of England and Wales held its first round table inter-varsity meeting, with representatives of nine universities present. A further round table meeting on 14 March 1919 formalised this body which involved 10 universities, with an initial plan to hold a track and field meeting at Aberystwyth on 28 May 1919.[35] Despite 11 universities being due to compete, just nine attended, with the event taking place in Manchester (rather than Aberystwyth). The 9 universities were Aberystwyth, Bangor, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, with Nottingham and Durham withdrawing. Bristol later became involved in the association after the March round table meeting.[36]

In 1922, association football, field hockey, rugby union and swimming were added to the events programme and the following year the Women's Inter-Varsity Board came into being. In 1930 the Universities Athletic Union (UAU) was established (originally under the name Inter-Varsity Athletics Board) to manage inter-university men's competition across the whole country. To manage Britain's student representation at an international level, the British Universities Sports Board was formed in 1952.[37] This was replaced in 1962 by the British Universities Sports Federation (BUSF) with the Scottish Universities Sports Federation, the University of Wales Athletic Union and the Northern Ireland Universities Sports Committee being corporate members. However, colleges and polytechnics were excluded from membership and had their own equivalent bodies, the British Colleges Sports Association and the British Polytechnic Sports Association.

Until 1979, men's and women's sport were still represented in England and Wales by separate bodies. The Women's Inter-Varsity Board was then merged into the Universities Athletic Union. In 1992, the divide between universities and polytechnics was removed and a new single organisation was called for to represent them jointly. This led to the UAU and BUSF merging to create British Universities Sports Association (BUSA).[37]

Meanwhile, there had been a development of the representation for staff responsible for sport at university. Thus, in 1960 the Universities Physical Education Association (UPEA) had been formed which in 1972 became the British Universities Physical Education Association. This in turn merged with the Association of Polytechnic Physical Education Lecturers to become British Universities and Colleges Physical Education Association and in 2000 this was renamed as University and College Sport (UCS).[37]

In June 2008 British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) was incorporated as a merger of UCS and BUSA to create one national association for university sport.[37]

• International University Sports Federation
• Scottish Universities Sport
• Colleges & Universities Sports Association of Ireland
• National Collegiate Athletic Association
• U Sports
• Varsity match

• Official website