The Olympic effect: What has UEL gained from involvement in the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

Wednesday 12 September 2012

London 2012 has been an exciting time for UEL. Over the past few weeks, we’ve had a large number of guests and high profile visitors on campus and a range of exciting events and activities taking place in SportsDock. But what can we say that UEL has gained from involvement in the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

In financial terms, our involvement in the Games has generated over £1 million which we are intending to use across a range of areas to enhance the student experience and improve how things work at UEL. This includes:

Research – partly thanks to Olympic revenue, we have been able to raise the amount allocated to research in 2012-13.
Learning and Teaching - Student Innovation Fund supporting L&T initiatives driven by students.
ASICS student scholarships – several fully funded PhD studentships, based in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience.
Improve the applicant experience – improvements will be made to online application and processing to ensure it is a smoother and quicker process.
Upgrading IT systems – to benefit both students and staff.
Reducing the need to make further savings following funding cuts
Further investment in sport – to make UEL the number one university in London for sport by 2015.

Students

Our students have also benefited from this involvement, namely in terms of the opportunities created both during and after the Games. Many of our students, such as those studying Physiotherapy, undertook unique opportunities to volunteer or work at the Games in a range of different roles. Furthermore, a select group of Sports Journalism students had the chance to work with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), gaining once in a lifetime experience that will be invaluable for their future careers.

Visibility

During the Olympic Games we have heightened the visibility of UEL, with increased visits to our website and over 1,000 media hits across a range of international channels from CNN to the Financial Times. This is a fantastic achievement as it demonstrates that UEL is a modern, capable and reliable organisation to a wide and international audience.

Ongoing partnerships

We have also created good partnerships with a range of organisations across London and internationally, which will be long-lasting well beyond Games-time. Student scholarships with ASICS, a global footwear and sports equipment manufacturer, provide a high profile reminder of our involvement