Course programme
Course details
On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
Year 1
In your first year, you'll look at a variety of subjects will to help you understand the wider sporting context.
Core units
Financial Reporting for Sport: An introduction to the techniques used for recording and reporting on financial information in a small business, sports club or society. You'll develop problem-solving, numeric and analytical skills.
Operations Management: The practical management of sports facilities, covering operational ideas about sports management. You'll investigate the development of sports management as a profession and look at current legislation and practice. You'll be introduced to the importance of planning and resourcing in a sports management role.
Research Skills: Gain the academic skills you'll need in higher education. You'll learn about how to find and use academic literature and the best ways of submitting your work.
Social Perspectives in Sport: Learn about social issues in sport, including how sociological theories can be applied to sports. You'll develop skills to help you place your own sporting experiences in a sociological setting.
Health & Fitness Management: The inner-workings of fitness centre management, and the challenges this industry faces. You'll learn why it's important to adopt a client-centred approach when working within the health and fitness industry.
Sport Marketing: You'll be taught about the links between a strategic approach to marketing in a dynamic and complex service industry, the relevance of marketing planning for a sports organisation and how to use marketing tactics. You'll develop intellectual skills that are subject specific and transferable.
Year 2
In year 2, you'll gain more subject specific knowledge and the skills you'll need to work effectively during your industrial work placement in year 3.
Core units
Research Methods: How research is important for understanding sport. You'll gain skills for collecting, analysing and presenting data. You'll learn about research ethics, and appreciate the diverse nature of research activity in sport contexts.
Events Management for Sport: You'll learn about different event management theories and how to practice them, whilst developing a positive attitude to risk-taking and entrepreneurship through creative and innovative thinking. The unit draws on other disciplines, including finance, marketing and resource management.
Financial Appraisal for Sport: Gain the skills you'll need to effectively plan, monitor and control finances in the sport sector. You'll develop short and medium-term strategic decision making defined by financial criteria, along with problem-solving, numeric and analytical skills.
Personal & Professional Development in Sport: You'll be taught about the relationships between personnel and human resource management in the management of people in sport organisations. You'll learn about the range of personnel and human resources practices in sport organisations, and the legal frameworks which govern the management of people in sport organisations.
Consumer Cultures for Sport: Consumer cultures, consumption practices and consumer theories in the spot industry. You'll get opportunities to analyse the processes that influence human behaviour and modern issues in consumption, culture and society.
Managing Sports Development: This unit is designed to provide you with a contextual understanding of sport policies, processes and practices involved in the management of sport development in England. The unit will analyse the structure and systems of sport governance and the operational functions of national sports organisations.
Year 3
Placement: A (minimum) 30-week supervised work placement in the UK or overseas which gives you the opportunity to turn theory into practice in a business environment. Our Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre has excellent links with sporting organisations, health and fitness clubs and national governing bodies in both the UK and Australia. This includes Sport England, UK Sport, David Lloyd, Fitness First, Holmes Place and the Australian Institute of Sport.
Year 4
In your final year, you'll get the opportunity to merge your academic and industrial skills and choose a unit that reflects your interest.
Core units
Dissertation: A piece of independent work that involves collecting, interpreting and analysing data. You'll share your key findings through a sustained and balanced argument. The dissertation will develop your analytical and problem solving skills. You'll develop a critical attitude to research methods, and the ethical issues associated with researching.
Consultancy Project: Gain skills in researching a business problem, identifying solutions and making proposals that satisfy a corporate client’s needs and circumstances.
Strategic Sport Management: Learn how to manage a service-based organisation in a dynamic environment. You'll develop intellectual skills that are subject-specific and transferable.
Option unitis (choose two)
Critical Notational Analysis in Sport: Learn how to apply notational analysis techniques within the coaching field and also how to write appropriate research papers to further the knowledge of performance analysis in the field of sport.
Managing Performance Coaching: Study the elite athlete and the performance environment. You'll learn to effectively identify and manage lifestyle, performance and training issues in the performance environment.
Marketing & Corporate Communications: Learn how to identify and manage marketing communications issues in business environments, with an emphasis on service sector issues.
Professionalism & Leadership: Improve your professionalism through personal reflection, group feedback and experiential learning. Analyse your leadership and management skills in situations you might encounter, and identify opportunities in large companies and training schemes.
Small Business Management: Learn about the role of small businesses in the economy, along with their aims, strengths and weaknesses. You'll develop enterprise awareness and an entrepreneurial mindset, which will help you assess business opportunities.
Sport, Physical Education & Pedagogy: Learn about the skills necessary for teaching and studying physical education. You'll look at key meanings of teaching and pedagogy, and the relationship between theory and practice of teaching young people.
Sport Tourism: Develop your understanding of sport tourism and demands for it. You'll explore supply structures and the impacts and responses of sport and tourism providers.
Critical Sport Development: Theoretical approaches to sport development and how this relates to sport development practice. You'll be encouraged to critically analyse and challenge notions of sport development.
Digital Marketing: This unit will provide you with practical and theoretical knowledge for using and evaluating digital marketing. You'll develop a sound understanding of digital marketing principles.
Financial Management: An opportunity to study financial management, building on your earlier studies in finance and accounting. You'll develop an appreciation for how organisations make financial decisions within the context of corporate strategy, and an understanding of financial management roles in organisations.
Hospitality Management: The hospitality industry meets the needs and expectations of businesses and leisure users through a range of service providers. This unit will develop your understanding of the hospitality industry in economic and operational terms, and you'll learn about vital features for the day-to-day management of hospitality units.
Performance Analysis in Coaching: Performance analysis in sports coaching and performance sport. You'll learn how to apply various analysis techniques for performers and coaches and the ability to give appropriate feedback from your findings.
Sport & the Law: Explore and analyse sport in a legal context. You'll be able to look at how the law can affect the way sports and sporting events are devised and managed. You'll analyse key areas of the English Legal System and how European and International Law influences sports.
Sport, Leisure & Politics: Learn about modern meanings and understandings of how sport and politics are linked within wider political and leisure industries. It explores political contexts to make sense of sport as a representational human activity loaded with sensitive values and an alternative environment for interaction.
Sports Marketing: The sports sector is a significant part of international, national and local business. This unit will develop your understanding of this sector in economic and operational terms, and you'll learn about vital features for the day-to-day management of sport.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
Scheduled learning and teaching activities
The emphasis of this course is in guided independent learning, which helps you develop into a self-motivated learner. When not attending lectures and seminars, you will be expected to read around the subject. Your typical week’s activities will include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments. The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during each year of this course.
Year 1 – 22% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities
Learning and teaching: 234 hours
Independent learning: 966 hours
Non-assessed learning and teaching: 42 hours
Year 2 – 20% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities
Learning and teaching: 234 hours
Independent learning: 966 hours
Non-assessed learning and teaching: 4 hours
Year 3 (placement year)
Learning and teaching: 146 hours
Independent learning: 1054 hours
Non-assessed learning and teaching: 5 hours
Year 4 - 13% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities
56% of the course is assessed by coursework
Year 1: 52%
Year 2: 77%
Year 3: 0% (placement year)
Year 4: 93%
Throughout the course you will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, but you will also undertake group work and written exams.
Programme specification
Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.
View the programme specification for BSc (Hons) Sports Management.
Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.
All statistics shown are taken from Unistats, Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE), BU institutional data and Ipsos MORI (National Student Survey) unless otherwise stated.