The proportion of Sussex students doing recommended amounts of exercise has decreased since a year ago, according to survey results this week.

Just 14.5% of those who filled in the Active Student Survey in the autumn term 2011 said that they did enough exercise to meet the widely-agreed national recommendation of five 30-minute sessions per week.

This is below the national average of 17% and a decrease of three percentage points since the 2010 Active Student Survey.

Karen Creffield, head of Sussexsport, which ran the survey, says: “While sports membership at Sussexsport and membership of Students’ Union clubs is at an all-time high, leaving most facilities at capacity, the survey shows we still have a very high percentage of students who are inactive and we have some way to go to meet the 70% target for 2020, as set out in the National Framework for Sport.

 “When students were asked about their favourite pastimes, physical activity and sport came second to music. Perhaps more worrying was that, when asked about their second and third favourite pastimes , physical activity and sport did not feature very highly. Computer games, internet, and pubs and clubs scored much higher, suggesting that, if sport isn’t your favourite activity as a student at Sussex, you are much less likely to participate at all.”

The survey found that students are most likely to do their exercise by walking for commuting purposes, with 47.9% putting this as their first-choice form of physical activity – an increase of 23 percentage points since a year ago.

Students also like to use the gym (40.1%), walk for fitness/leisure (24.1%) and jog and run (26.8%).

The second Annual Student Survey was completed in November 2011 by nearly 1,100 students. 

Questions covered sport and physical activity patterns, types of activity undertaken, and location.

The survey also included an opportunity to feed back on provision at Sussex.

Karen says: “We had a lot of comments about poor changing facilities, the need for investment and difficulty in accessing some of our most popular classes due to the high demand. 

“We did, however, have some fantastic feedback about our classes and courses programmes and how helpful, friendly and knowledgeable our staff were, with more than 150 respondents volunteering testimonials about positive experiences they had with staff and instructors.

“We also received some great feedback about what people would like to see, which will inform our future planning. 

“The surveys have provided some interesting results, insights and feedback on activity patterns at Sussex and I would like to thank everybody who took the time to answer our questions.”