BUCS appoints first Disability Sports Officer

by Colin B Robertson

The national organisation for higher education sport in the UK, British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS), has announced the appointment of Dave Padgen, as the charity’s first national Disability Sports Officer.

Part-funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and supported by the University of Nottingham, the new post will initially identify what provision is available within the higher education sports sector for disabled student athletes and put together the sector’s first strategy around disability sport.

Ex athlete, Padgen previously worked as a Development Manager at the English Federation of Disability Sport and was the first European with Cerebral Palsy to climb Kilimanjaro.

On his appointment he said: “I am thrilled to be taking up this new role and look forward to working with the higher education sector. This role is extremely exciting and represents a real commitment to improving the experience disabled students have of university sport and therefore of university life.”

Karen Rothery, Chief Executive of BUCS said: "With London 2012 just around the corner, this new post will help us put together a new strategy for disability sport on campus to improve the student experience all the way through from grass roots participation to Paralympic podium places.”

Currently there are no Disability Sports provisions at UAL, despite one in five students having some form of disability. Campaigns and Communications officer, Kit Friend explained "the Disability Assembly is in it's infancy (one year old) - so pushing the disabled sports angle could be an incentive to grow it."

He stated: "SUARTS will always seek to support students from every background in engaging in our activities - we do our utmost to plan our facilities and development to be accessible, with representation from disabled students at the heart of our planning," there is a disability-specific motion in the current referenda.

Arts London News, reported last week that, although both the UAL Disability Committee and Carly Aslett, Cultural and Diversity officer were in support of creating a new disability sports society they would like to see members of the student community being pro active in doing so.

Anyone looking to set up a society at UAL can do so by visiting suarts.org/sportsandsocs