Sport Management MSc

Mega-Events: Global Sport in Perspective

Examines the contemporary landscape in global sport, focusing on mega-events. It explores their history, structures, governance, management, and commercial aspects, as well as bidding and hosting processes, infrastructure, management and control of events, security, marketing and media rights, and legacies.

Global Sport and Cultural Event Marketing

Examines sport and cultural event marketing opportunities within global settings. It explores key marketing concepts including the marketing environment, segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP), the marketing mix, branding, and consumer and audience behaviour within international and global contexts.

Sport Ethics and Governance

Examines the ethical, legal, and organisational frameworks for sport. It explores a range of thematic case studies of problematic areas in sport, such as doping, violence, discrimination, child protection, the environment, and human rights.

Sport Heritage

Examines the growing phenomenon of sport heritage, whereby sport organisations and clubs showcase their history and heritage through such avenues as halls of fame, museums, stadium tours, and heritage-based merchandise. The module will include, when travel is permitted, visits to key sport sites and museums so that students can experience hands-on the ways in which heritage is presented and promoted.

Events Leadership

Addresses the needs of individuals leading cultural, commercial, and sport events and events management organisations. It explores the advantages and weaknesses of public versus private ownership, and the skills needed to motivate, manage and organise staff and other stakeholders to create excellent events.

Fieldwork Experience

Provides students with hands-on experience working with a sport organisation or business. You will gain application and interview skills in the process of securing your fieldwork, and reflect at the end on the experience you have gained within the industry.

Final project options (select one):

Consultancy Project

Offers an opportunity for students to complete a project related to a sport organisation or business, allowing them to apply knowledge gained on the course. Students write a business-focused report and make recommendations for the organisation.

Heritage Project

Offers an opportunity for students to complete a heritage-based project related to sport. This can include major projects such as exhibitions, cataloguing or digitising collections, or creating databases, completed in conjunction with an existing organisation. Students will also submit a final report analysing the project and experience.

Note: All modules are subject to change in order to keep content current.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching is through a mix of seminars, tutorials, library sessions, and site visits and the breakdown of these activities is shown in each module description.

Various assessments are used on the course: projects, essays, reflective journals and blogs, and presentations. There are no exams on the course.

The final project options include a Consultancy Project or a Heritage Project, both of which provide an opportunity to produce real-world sport industry research.

For the full-time course, you will normally attend around 12 hours of timetabled taught sessions including lectures, tutorials, workshop and studio sessions each week. You are also expected to undertake around 23 hours of independent study each week. Your precise timetable will depend on the modules timetabled each week.

During semester 2 you will also undertake a fieldwork experience module with a sport organisation or business. The programme’s established connections within the sport industry provide these opportunities, although you are welcome to develop your own sport connections into a fieldwork. Your exact schedule will be negotiated with the host organisation.

In addition, each module provides a 2 hour surgery each week for individual consultation with the lecturer. You may also have some scheduled meetings with your programme leader and personal tutor throughout the year to discuss your academic progress and personal development.

Self-directed study: In order to prepare for, and assimilate, the work in lectures and seminars you will be expected to source and read relevant journal articles, book chapters and industry publications, available through our online learning resources, and to actively participate in class discussions. The time allocated for independent study, revision and reflection is approximately 23 hours per week.

During the summer session you will undertake independent research for your final project and you are expected to allow around 35 hours per week for this. You will be allocated a dedicated academic supervisor to support you and you will be able to contact them on a regular basis.

Part-time study is normally undertaken on a half-time basis.