University sport has long been one of higher education’s most powerful tools for building a sense of belonging among students – forging friendships, creating community, and building shared purpose outside the classroom.
University senior managers are increasingly alive to this, but even as awareness of sport’s value has grown, the unevenness of that belonging has come into sharper focus. The question facing the sector is not whether university sport can build belonging and community, but whether it’s delivering that promise for all students.
For decades, inclusion in higher education sport has often been inferred from participation numbers, diverse team photos, or well-meaning statements of intent. Yet for many students and staff, the lived experience tells a different story – racism persists, often subtly, in systems designed for inclusion that instead reproduce inequality.
The British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Anti-Racist Charter emerges from this tension. It’s not just another framework or statement of values, but a call on the higher education sport sector to take concrete action to drive out racism in all its forms. Through its focus on diagnostic assessment, education, policy, community voice, and competition environments, it reframes anti-racism as core to the quality and integrity of university sport, rather than an optional add-on.
The research project
Work on the Anti-Racist Charter stemmed from the findings of a Sport England-funded research project commissioned by BUCS and led by the University of Wolverhampton. At its heart was a deceptively simple research question – what does university sport feel like for global majority students?
By connecting instances of racism across the sector, the project uncovered clear patterns to these experiences, and marked a shift in approach – from asking whether inclusion exists, to asking how exclusion is reproduced and how it can be dismantled. Beyond individual experiences of racism on the court or on the pitch, the research uncovered patterns, behaviours, and system-level barriers that exist in higher education sport.
The starkest findings were repeatable experiences and structural gaps. Overt racism was occurring more often than expected, and often in subtle or disguised forms. Reporting mechanisms were limited or not trusted, and students lacked confidence that incidents would be addressed. There was a lack of representation and empathy within the higher education sport workforce, and diverse voices were not consistently influencing decision-making.
What the research found
The findings reveal a tension at the heart of university sport – it can generate belonging and wellbeing, but not equally for all. Students consistently described playing by “unwritten rules” and masking aspects of their identity, and when racism was experienced, they faced the challenge of managing environments where it was difficult to evidence, while carrying the burden of proving incidents when they occurred.
The impact of racist incidents was also cumulative, shaping confidence, participation, and sense of self among global majority students. And the challenge runs beyond what happens on the field to how institutions respond – students pointed to unclear reporting pathways, a lack of transparency in sanctions, pressure on victims to evidence incidents, and limited trust in outcomes.
Representation gaps within coaching and leadership compounded this, limiting empathy and understanding, and reinforcing a cycle where experiences are not fully recognised or acted upon. The result is a system where students are expected to adapt or internalise their experience, rather than one that amplifies the voices of those experiencing exclusion.
The research indicated that visibility, sporadic incident logging, and aspiration for progress were insufficient, and pointed to three shifts.
The first is from neutrality to intentionality – institutions must actively address race within the systems that govern sport, replacing assumptions of inclusion based on participation figures or appearance with evidence and action.
The second is from fragmentation to systems-level change – reporting, safeguarding, data, and accountability structures must be clear, trusted, transparent, and above all consistently applied. Without this, students will continue to disengage from formal processes and manage experiences individually.
The third is from representation to experience. Increasing diversity is necessary but insufficient on its own – demographic participation targets will not be achieved unless the experience itself is inclusive. That means institutions putting student voice at the centre of decision-making to actually understand differential experiences, and building inclusion into culture rather than just policy, which aligns directly with BUCS’ wider strategic ambition to deliver exceptional student sporting experiences that meet the needs of a diverse student body.
BUCS Race and Equality Research and Implementation Group
To bridge the gap from research to implementation, BUCS formed the Race and Equality Research and Implementation Group (RERIG), bringing together a diverse cross-section of the sector – Molly Byrne, Hannah Campbell, Ryan Carty, Luke Degun, Emilie Fairnington, Nick Francourt, Tommy Garwood, Ryan Ginger, Ebony Harding, Diana-Mae Pettigrew, Ronnie Richards, Heidi Spencer, Will Spendlove, Katy Teasdale, Gavin Ward, Henry Warne, and Laura Williams.
The group recognised the challenge of removing barriers for smaller institutions with limited resource, while introducing accountability through transparent data and cross-sector benchmarking. Rather than letting findings sit in reports, RERIG has driven the development of three components.
The first is an Anti-Racist Charter to define the sector-wide commitment. The second is a diagnostic assessment matrix to help institutions measure their current systems and practices, covering student voice, policy, education, training, and game day management. The third is a resource toolkit of best practice to support progress in areas where the diagnostic assessment identifies room for improvement.
In less than two years, RERIG has developed sector-specific tools – available from 7 July – that place student voice at the centre. What this changes is the terms of the conversation – institutions are no longer simply being asked whether they are inclusive, but are being asked to show it, measure it, and improve it over time, which is the key to building sector-wide commitment to continuous, evidence-led improvement.
Where next?
The launch of the Anti-Racist Charter marks the transition from intent to sector-wide action. Through early pilot work conducted by members of RERIG, institutions have already engaged with the diagnostic assessment and provided structured self-reflection, helping to refine the implementation components through several stages of iteration.
After the full launch at the BUCS Conference in July, the diagnostic assessment tool and resource toolkit will be followed by a benchmarking platform developed by BUCS, with the aim of comparing institutional progress across the sector. The connection between diagnostic assessment, toolkit resources, and transparent benchmarking reflects an ambition for sustained culture change over several years – one that goes well beyond short-term compliance with a set of rigid top-down requirements.
The evidence is no longer ambiguous. Racism in university sport may not always be visible, but it is damaging and chronically under-addressed. The BUCS Anti-Racist Charter and the work of RERIG offer a path grounded in implementation. The real challenge for the sector is not whether to act, but whether it is willing to confront a harder truth – that systems must change too.
