Granted funding at this week’s Vice Chancellor’s Student Experience Projects (Steps) Dragons’ Den event in Bedford (Dec 7), the Clinic will be an extension to the free service already offered to staff and students at the University.

Budding sports therapists will, when the new Clinic opens in Luton, be able to refer patients to the Diagnostic Clinic, rather than sending them outside the University for treatment.

The project will give Sports Therapy students vital placement time and allow them to follow a patient from initial consultation to diagnosis and beyond.

Awarding £22k to fund the first year of the project – which will be self-sustainable from there on – was a panel of Vice Chancellor Bill Rammell, Director of Policy Debbie McVitty, Director of Academic Development Mark Atlay, Associate Dean (Student Experience) for the Education and Sport Faculty Ken Roberts and Bedfordshire Students’ Union (Beds SU) Executive Officer Melissa Wilson

They also gave the green light to the proposal of a competition-level tumble strip for the University’s cheerleading and gymnastics teams to practise on.

Alongside Bedfordshire’s stunt team, the cheerleading cohort have placed well in national university competitions, finishing top-two and top-three in a pair of categories in this year’s British Cheerleading Association University Nationals.

The purchase of a £2,700 tumble track will ensure Bedfordshire is placed, in the words of panellist Ken Roberts, ‘on the mat’.

Also proposed during the evening was a Speakers’ Corner, with the panel suggesting the idea should be worked on in collaboration with Beds SU

There was also the proposal of a game-based, cross-faculty, learning method, designed to enhance collaboration between students and inject extra creativity when assignment- and exam-periods are in full flow.

However, the pitch – for £32k – was turned down and it was suggested the project was given a clearer direction ahead of a resubmission at another Dragons’ Den event.

The next such event is on March 1, with the deadline for entries being January 29.

About Steps

• Steps are the University of Bedfordshire Vice Chancellor's Student Experience Projects. Funding of £300,000 has been set aside for the initiative.
• So far, over 170 ideas have been submitted by staff and students across the University, around 30 of which have since become a reality, including the likes of Bulls TV, I CARE and The Guildford Street Press.