The Sports Officer is responsible for overseeing sport at the University of Birmingham (UoB), helping students across campus to get active in ways that suit them. They crucially work with UB sport to make sure sports clubs are organised how students want and works closely with clubs to help students develop and feel happy and healthy. They also co-chair the activities committee.

As well as the candidates listed here, also running for Sports Officer are Sophia Herouvin, Harry Kanda, Anna Dagwell and Donny Frankel.

The candidates running for the position this year are listed alphabetically by their surname on this page. You can find out more information and vote on the Guild of Students website here.

‘Curious’ George Christian

George is a Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences student running for the position of Sports Officer. With the clear aim of transparency in mind, his slogan ‘No monkey business’ best represents what he hopes to achieve in the role.

As the President of UoB’s rowing club and the previous men’s captain, George believes he represents sport at the university, already possessing great insight and knowledge into how sports clubs are currently run and the challenges they have faced this past year. He feels that as a whole, there needs to be more communication for students within sports teams. Whilst, he says, there are lots of opportunities for committees to give feedback on the club, it is not as accessible for the wider student population, especially those who do not participate actively within a club. George understands that ‘the guild’s whole purpose is to listen to students and the student voice’ and so places value on representing students fairly and ensuring that the student voices reach people who can make a difference. Therefore, he recognises the need for better feedback platforms for every student at the university, ensuring that clubs and students can feedback regularly, and that he conveys this feedback regularly.

To George, UoB sport is represented best through two pillars, where one involves high performance athletes and country-leading clubs, which are important to the university and its standing within sports. The other, he says, is the clubs that thrive on participation, weighing student experience higher than their ability. George posits that sports is an enabler and has allowed him to progress in many respects, and he simply wants to provide this opportunity to other students. Sport is the ‘cornerstone of the university,’ in his eyes.

George is excited to work with the new incoming director of Sports, saying that a good relationship between himself and the director will ensure clubs get the necessary support in the covid/post-covid environment. He notes that good relations between himself in the role and UB sport generally is vital in producing effective solutions to problems he may face throughout the year.

Another area of specific interest to George is para-sports, particularly for those who have an invisible disability. As a type one diabetic himself, he understands that many students with an invisible disability participate in sports at the university but do not necessarily receive any support for it, and so, George wants to provide this support and allow the clubs to facilitate this themselves. This is vital to creating adaptive and inclusive training sessions.

Nauman Haq

Nauman Haq is a postgraduate Health Economics and Health Policy student who has an endless list of ideas for betting the experience of sport for students at the university. He is already a medical professional, a member of the Pakistan Olympics committee, and the Vice-President of Pakistan Baseball Federation, in which he recently led his team to third place at the national games.

Nauman says he ‘doesn’t just want to create players,’ he wants ‘to create sports leaders,’ forming a sports leadership programme, including events, conferences, guests speakers, and more, in order to push students who are interested in sports careers towards their goals. Drawing attention to UoB’s partnership in the 2022 Commonwealth games, he wants to take full advantage of that opportunity, giving students the maximum exposure and participation in the event, looking to make them ambassadors for the games.

Nauman also values equal opportunities for all students, especially minority groups, because he wants to ensure that everyone feels represented. He gave an example of where he demonstrated creating equal opportunities in his role as chairman of the sports committee in Pakistan. He had been approached by a community of transgender people who felt under-represented in sport and in response to their query, Nauman secured the budget for a sporting event for the transgender community to ensure that they felt heard and supported. He wishes to replicate his success in the role of Sports Officer to make sports more accessible to everyone.

He equally believes that UoB will benefit from more external linkages to club sport and wants to provide more opportunities for international tours and tournaments. For the high performing athletes, he wants to project their achievements in a celebrity-like fashion, so their hard work and incredible performance is recognised across the university. Nauman believes that one way this can be implemented is through live matches that other students can tune into online.

To Nauman, the Sports Officer role is about Leadership, Teamwork, and Fairness.

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