Our Approach
Across student sport, there is a huge amount of knowledge, experience and data. The challenge is turning that information into meaningful insight that can help us understand students, identify what is changing and make better decisions about what we do next to continually improve student sport for everyone.
Our Research, Data & Insight work is about helping SSS and our members ask better questions, collect better information and use evidence to understand and improve the student experience.
We want to move beyond simply collecting data. Our focus is on making information useful — bringing together research, data, experience and insight to understand what is happening across the sector and identify where there are opportunities to improve.
Student sport operates in a changing environment. Students’ experiences, expectations and behaviours continue to evolve, while institutions face new challenges and competing priorities.
Understanding those changes and forecasting ahead will us as SSS to respond with greater confidence and provide better all round support to our members, our partners and the wider sector.
Research and insight helps us to:
- Understand current (and incoming) students experiences, needs, behaviours and motivations.
- Make better decisions using evidence to inform planning, priorities and investment.
- Understand the impact and evaluating whether programmes and initiatives are achieving what we all want them to achieve.
- Identify and highlighting where students may be missing out or where provision could be improved.
- Identify emerging trends and areas where we can work collectively to create positive change.
This includes working with academic partners, members and students to understand the issues that matter most to the sector, supporting research that can inform practice and creating opportunities to share knowledge and learning.
Our ambition is not to undertake research for research’s sake or analyse data to produce unnecessary information. It is to ensure that the experiences and voices of students are better understood, that our members are better equipped to use their own data, and that evidence can contribute to meaningful improvements in student sport.
In 2026 we established the Scottish Student Research Group. Read more here.