Scottish Student Sport has set off on a refreshed strategic journey as we gear up for the 2025/26 academic year.

Entitled Inspiring, Active, Learning, our new strategy came into effect on 1st August 2025 and will guide our direction over the next two years, through to summer 2027.

At its core, our mission remains unchanged: to empower colleges and universities to enhance their sport and active wellbeing opportunities for students.

This strategy launches at time when SSS have undergone significant organisational change, against a backdrop of public funding cuts and the ongoing cost of living pressures. This has required a rethinking of how particular areas of work can be delivered over the coming years. However, the strategy also sets out a path to look at 2027 and beyond, where we can continue to elevate the student experience for those participating in sport on campus.

We’ve also worked to align our goals with the Scottish Government’s new Physical Activity for Health Framework, launched in October 2024. Together, the network is committed to playing an active role in delivering national outcomes across sport, health, and education. By placing ourselves at the junctions between tertiary education and partners across the Scottish sporting system, we will continue to support, connect and advocate for our members.

Sport and active wellbeing are fundamental parts of the student experience—and just as higher education helps shape the future of sport in Scotland, sport enriches life on campus. SSS is committed to leading visibly and collaboratively, helping to bring these worlds even closer together.

View the full strategy below:

Strategy 25-27

The Scottish Student Sport network came together for our Annual General Meeting, which took place virtually on Wednesday 20th August.

Alongside business and financial updates from the organisation, voting took place for vacant positions on our three committees: Executive, Competitions and Development.

In addition, three constitutional amendments were agreed upon, including a restructure of the Development Committee which is reflected in the breakdown of positions below.

On our Executive Council, Ian Lowe (RGU) steps up into the vacant staff member role. Taking up the one year student positions are sabbatical officers Anna Edvaldsson (Strathclyde), Freya Rennie (UWS), and Liv Stevens (Edinburgh).

Moving to our Competitions Committee, and Ben Graham (Heriot-Watt) was elected as Chair. Aonghus Sellar (SS Football) was reelected as the Sports Chair Representative, while Laura Shaw (Stirling) and Rory la Trobe (Dundee) were named Student Representatives.

Finally, our Development Committee will be led again by Katherine Duncan (Edinburgh). Xsara Murray (Edinburgh College) and Callum Ball (Stirling) were both elected for the first time to the new-look committee.

A couple of positions on our Development Committee remain open. Interest in any of these roles should be registered with Julia Stenhouse.

Thank you to all those who attended our AGM and best of luck to our new elected representatives over the coming year!

Committees in Full

Executive Council, 2025/26:

Please note that representative(s) from sportscotland, and BUCS may also be present at Executive Council meetings.

Competitions Committee, 2025/26:

Please note that the Fixtures Forum Chair may also be present at Competitions Committee meetings.

Development Committee, 2025/26:

Updated 30/07/25

With season 25/26 approaching, we can confirm more details about our new phase of work, and the changes this brings to Scottish Student Sport.

The changes are the result of a challenging financial climate, created by rising core costs and the removal of £100k of annual external funding. Previously, we have confirmed that the SSS staff team will from August 1st drop from ten to six with the following roles discontinued:

• Competitions Assistant
• Sport & Active Health Coordinator
• Inclusion & Culture Coordinator
• Learning & People Coordinator

Looking Forward

A slimmed down staff team means that changes to our ways of working are required. As an overview, we can now provide a streamlined ‘roles and responsibilities’ graphic which outlines the areas of of work, partners, and Sports Groups each staff member will look after.

In Competitions, we’re aiming to deliver around 100 events alongside the usual league activity, and what we expect to be a slimmed down National Squad programme. The full run of events for 25/26 will be confirmed by September.

Our SSS Leagues, Knockouts, and BUCS Centralised Leagues will all return in 25/26 with information on entries communicated to the relevant institution staff. We will be leaning more on volunteers to help support the delivery of these events throughout the year.

Any SSS/BUCS Centralised League, or National Squad queries should now be directed to Head of Competitions Chris Purdie.

We will be evolving our Development approach to provide broader, more flexible support across the sector focusing on our membership, our partners and key areas of work. By prioritising breadth, impact, and added value, we aim to engage more members and partners through networking opportunities and collaborative project work.

We will be looking to continue our workforce development efforts including a revised Reffin’ Brilliant programme and flexible staff education to fill knowledge gaps. Our focus on a wider exploration of how physical activity for wellbeing can be embedded further across tertiary education will allow us to continue our work with SAMH and integrate movement into the everyday student life.

Similarly, our Equality Action Plan will aim to enhance belonging across a diverse community to ensure no student is left behind in their desire to play sport or be active. We’ll be enabled in all of this by harvesting research, insights and data analysis from a range of areas to better inform the membership, our partners and the broader network about the important role of sport/physical activity.

Our Advocacy work will continue apace, with SSS staff responsibilities being supplanted by members representing SSS in a variety of networks connected to sport and education. Collectively we will continue to position sport and physical activity within tertiary education and vice-versa, ensuring that joined up thinking and collaboration is made as easy as possible on a national level.

We will prioritise our partnerships with sportscotland and BUCS, aim to stay connected to SFC to identify future possibilities for refreshed support, and aim to contribute to strategic decision making about sport at a local, regional and national level. We will also be working hard to influence sustainable longer term to the Active Campus network in partnership with College senior management and Colleges Scotland.

Sports Groups

As part of the rethinking of our areas of work, a review of our 35 sports was also undertaken with the decision made to reduce the number we operate in. This decision was made based on member/SGB engagement, available volunteer support, and our current involvement in each sport.

The groups we will no longer be continuing are:

• Boxing
• Cheer
• Climbing
• Karate
• Lacrosse
• Ultimate

In addition, Cross Country will move to sit within Athletics, reflecting the SGB structure and make-up of the majority of student clubs.

Each Sport Group is overseen by a SSS staff member who acts as the Sport Lead. Following a reallocation, sports will now sit with the following staff:

• Stew Fowlie: Basketball, Curling, Rowing, Shinty
• Chris Purdie: Golf, Football, Futsal, Judo, Volleyball
• Jordan Dawson: Cricket, Fencing, Hockey, Netball, Swimming
• Julia Stenhouse: Archery, Badminton, Rifle, Sailing, Table Tennis
• Sophie Charlton: Athletics/XC, Handball, Polo, Tennis, Trampoline
• Ruairidh Campbell: Cycling, Rugby, Squash, Triathlon

Recruitment continues for most of our sports. With the operational changes in play, we are more reliant than ever on volunteers to step up and support our sports this season. View the vacancies available here.

Further Updates

Once our new committees are in place following our AGM, we will be able to confirm the SSS Operational Plan for 25/26. This will fill in any final gaps relating to project delivery moving forward.

Should you wish to discuss any aspect in the meantime, please contact COO Stew Fowlie on stew@scottishstudentsport.com or call 07903 891 497.