Princess Royal visits King’s Bench Street

Princess Anne has been the patron of BUSA – the national governing body of student sport – since its creation in 1994. BUSA officials praise her "dedication, commitment and support" for the organisation's work.

Other special guests at the opening ceremony included BUSA president John Inverdale, chairman Phil Atwell and new CEO Ian Randell.

"We are all very excited about the opening of the new offices which provide BUSA with the perfect base to serve our members and insure the continued success and development of both the Association and student sport,” said Ian Randell. “Princess Anne and John Inverdale have been instrumental to the success of the Association, and we were delighted that they were both able to join us to share in the celebration of the new offices.”

The new offices at 20-24 King's Bench Street are just a short walk from BUSA's previous home at the eastern end of Union Street.

BUSA runs national competitions in 48 sports from Athletics to Windsurfing, and co-ordinating the Great Britain representative teams for the World University Games and World University Championships.

The BUSA sporting programme draws on 1.2 million students with more than 3,500 teams engaged in BUSA competition on a typical sporting day. With over 600 leagues, it is the biggest such sporting programme in Europe.

Many university participants have gone on to achieve British and International success in their chosen sport, including Paula Radcliffe, James Cracknell, Stephaine Cook, Nasser Hussain, Kate Howey, Audley Harrison, James Gibson and Will Greenwood.