The move is part of Sport England’s 10-year Uniting the Movement strategy, focused on transforming lives and communities through sport.

BUCS will receive support and investment of £1.34 million (€1.56 million/$1.64 million) of Government and National Lottery funding from Sport England.

Research has shown that certain groups - women, people with long-term health conditions, disabled people, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups - are less active and the opportunity to get involved depends on background, gender and postcode.

Through this funding and expertise, BUCS is hoping to make sport more accessible, becoming a leader in tackling inequalities; and supporting universities and colleges reach underrepresented groups.

"Sport England’s goal is to get everyone active - no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is," Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of Sport England, said.

"But we know that certain groups - such as people on lower incomes - are more likely to be inactive.

"We can only innovate and tackle inequalities effectively by thinking about long-term change; Uniting the Movement is a long-term vision, and our funding approach needs to reflect that.

"Changes to our funding model will help us achieve our goal, by making it easier for our partners to do what they need to do to level up and deliver."

Jenny Morris, BUCS director of delivery, was full of praise for the initiative.

"This renewed partnership with Sport England is a tremendous endorsement of the work we have been doing and of our long-term vision to make sport and physical activity available to everyone," Morris said.  

"We want to showcase the positive impact sport and physical activity has on the lives of young people, and make real headway in ensuring there is equity in access to these benefits for underrepresented groups.

"We are delighted to be able to partner with Sport England to help achieve this and, in doing so, play our part in achieving their ambitions of tackling inequalities to ensure more people have equal access to sport and physical activity."