If you love sport and want to learn as much as you can about sports management, development and coaching, this is the course for you. This course brings together these distinct but interrelated themes, to promote a broad understanding and examination of these diverse areas of sport.
You might be thinking about becoming a PE teacher, starting your own business, working in a more managerial role, or as a performance analyst, high-performance coach, or a sports development officer. Perhaps you see yourself working in a more managerial role, or maybe working in education and teaching. Work experience opportunities are integrated into the programme. So whatever career you decide to pursue, work-related experience combined with academic study and a focus on communication skills will enhance your prospects.
You’ll study a range of subjects, focusing on key areas that impact on sports participation and performance. With optional modules, you’ll be able to tailor your degree to what interests you most. This course is full of opportunities, including the potential to visit Utrecht University in the Netherlands for an exchange*. The University also works closely together with national and international researchers, coaches and athletes, who engage with our facilities and workforce.
In your first year you’ll learn the foundations of sports coaching, aspects related to physical activity and sports development and begin to understand the sports industry. You’ll also learn about national and international sports business management and sports within a global world. To help you settle into University life, you’ll take a module focused on developing the academic skills you need to be a successful student.
Your second year builds on what you learnt in the first year. You’ll study global perspectives of sports development, applied sports coaching and management of sports events. The module on research methods helps you to understand the principles and methods that underpin social science research. You’ll be able to use this to critique and understand the research done in the areas of sports development, sports coaching, or the sports business management field. It will also come in handy for your final year dissertation. In addition, we also offer optional modules for you to choose from e.g., process and practices in high-performance sport, sports ethics or facilities and funding.
Work placement/study abroad option*: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or complete a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about, but it will also give your CV a boost. If you would rather go straight to your final year, that’s fine too. You can decide in your second year with us, so there is still plenty of time to think about this.
In your final year, you’ll be able to develop your research skills through our research dissertation module and/or focus on a work experience dissertation. You’ll get a personal supervisor to support you with the research and/or work experience dissertation. Here, you’ll design and undertake your own project on a topic relevant to your area of study, and more importantly, it will be aligned to an area that interests you. You’ll also be able to study other modules in the final year, such as enterprise and entrepreneurship, behaviour change for physical activity and advanced sports coaching.
For a full list of modules, see the section under ‘What will I study?’
*Depending on the COVID-19 guidelines and developments