BSc (Hons)Sport Management

Core modules

Health and Safety Operations

This module will consider the legal and managerial framework for the safe operation of all aspects of sport and leisure provision, including the effective management and operation of facilities, resources and equipment and delivering sport and leisure experiences from traditional sports and community venues through to outdoor and adventurous centres and stadium and arena operations. Students will develop an understanding of the statutory duties placed upon them by health and safety law and be able to apply this understanding to the planning of a safe environment.

Industry Awareness and Employability

The contemporary sport industry encompasses businesses and organisations (across the public, private and voluntary sector) which range from sport, health and fitness, adventure/outdoor to sports event and tourism orientated companies. Across the sectors, organisations are facing a time of increasing challenge and competition within a dynamic environment both domestically and globally. How organisations respond will require suitably informed graduates with an understanding of the scale and scope of this ever-changing industry, influenced by a range of external factors and requiring understanding of related socio-cultural, political and economic principles which drive innovation and improvement towards organisational objectives.

Management and Organisational Behaviour

On recognising the functional overview of management, this module will focus on the roles and responsibilities of managers in planning, leading, motivating, communicating and teambuilding through the people in your workforce and how your role as a manager can influence this. You will learn about the fundamentals of one’s behaviour. First your own behaviour through psychology and aptitude tests and experiments in the classroom. This will enable you to appreciate the differences in human behaviour alongside all the areas of central importance such as perception, personality, communication and motivation to be effective in management.

Marketing Principles

This module is designed to provide you with a strong theoretical foundation of marketing as a business philosophy among other key business philosophies and explore its uses within organisations of all types to achieve optimisation of organisational output. The module will reveal the distinctness of the leisure, sport and outdoor industry in the context of organisational and marketing practices.

Research and Study Skills

Each week you will explore a different topic area that will help prepare you for your ‘research journey’. You will ask yourself: what is research; why is it important; and how do I successfully undertake it? Learning will encompass how to locate and use information, how to evaluate the quality of the information found, and how to analyse research design. You will explore research examples and be challenged to identify a potential research area that is of interest to you.

Social and Cultural Issues

In this module, you will study the evolution and development of sport, the historical processes which have affected the inclusive and/or exclusive nature of sport, social concepts such as social class, race and ethnicity, sex and gender, and disability, and how social issues affect the accessibility for specific social groups to participate in sport.

Core modules

Planning Live Projects

Events and projects within the sport and wider leisure sector are diverse. While the aims and objectives differ, the basic premise behind successful event/project planning, organisation, implementation, and evaluation will be common. Concepts of group formation, team leadership and management, feasibility analysis (SMART objectives), marketing, budgeting, financial management, risk assessment, scheduling, GANNT chart planning are explored and analysed alongside operational aspects of managing projects and working with teams and external stakeholders responding to conflict and change management through the key focus of this group project.

Event Leadership and Marketing

This module allows you to work in teams to implement event/project plans and to recognise the responsibility in leading successful events/projects. Through real life practice you will apply the skills of delivering a successful event by working in teams and in collaboration with stakeholders to make the plan a reality. This will include reviewing the feasibility plans and specifically implementing the marketing strategies and adjusting as the event/project progresses.

Human Resources and Performance Management

You will develop knowledge of a range of core operational management principles and their applications within service-related industries. You will explore the soft elements of management which include organisational culture, and how this is influenced by different management and leadership styles and approaches, dependent on the behaviours, values, beliefs and personalities of individuals. You will go on to look at the hard elements of human resources (HR) management which includes some aspects of employment law and associated procedures, related to recruitment and selection, training and development and performance management.

Research Methods

This module provides you with the fundamental building blocks towards a final year dissertation and equips you with the tools needed to fulfil an independent and academically rigorous research project.

Optional modules

Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.

Adventure and Outdoor Recreation

In this module you will explore and understand factors affecting UK demand for outdoor and adventure recreation in this country and overseas. Firstly you will examine the demographic (lifestyle) of the recreational consumer, building on exploration of target groups from Level 4 and external and internal factors that affect participation. The second part of this module will explore and understand the provision of outdoor recreation and adventure tourism in this country and overseas and how this provision is developed to meet and exceed the needs of the UK recreational consumer through public, private and voluntary organisations.

Outdoor Learning and Coaching

This module will consider the foundations and principles underpinning outdoor learning and coaching, including the design and delivery of innovative learning experiences, the learning process, facilitation skills and the nature and potential of outdoor learning to achieve a diverse array of outcomes.

Policy in Practice

You will study a range of policy and practice considerations relating to your specific course area and ask yourself: why do we have policy; how has it developed over time; and what is its key priority?

Sociological Perspectives

In addition to learning the theories that underpin the subject of sociology of sport, you will engage with various topics and learning styles and opportunities. This will ensure you are given different ways to learn and gain confidence in doing so. You will gain valuable knowledge and find ways of applying this in your own specific subject area in the future. You will also be able to challenge yourself to learn in different ways and to gain a better and deeper understanding of different topics.

Technical and Tactical Performance Analysis and Recruitment

During this module you will learn about key definitions, theories and concepts of performance analysis and recruitment, including historical perspectives, data collection procedures, notation and computerised notation systems, statistical representation and reliability, role of performance indicators, and the integration of both departments with the coaching process. You will also learn practical skills such as planning, coding, and presenting key performance indicators to individual players, units of the team, and the coach; as well as working within a group and as an individual.

The Politics, Culture and Sociology of Football

This module will provide you with a critical understanding of the world’s most popular but also most contested sport. Drawing upon a number of political and sociological literatures, we will critically explore various football-related issues from a range of different theoretical viewpoints. Each theoretical perspective will be analysed using a range of specific football-related literature. Using this literature, you will be expected to present a political and sociological analysis addressing the culture of football, and the importance of applying these theories to underpin such an analysis.

Placement Year

By undertaking a work placement you will have the opportunity to reflect on and implement the knowledge and skills you have gained during your previous modules of study and learn about new concepts and working practices. The experience gained should enhance your knowledge and professional skills enabling you to identify business and social problems in the workplace and propose and deploy alternative solutions.

Core modules

Dissertation

The process of doing your own research will enable you to demonstrate the skills and knowledge you have developed throughout your degree. You will learn how to plan your research, apply for ethics, collect data, analyse data and write this into a dissertation. You will learn how to manage the research process and understand complications and how to manage these when they arise during data collections.

Strategic Management and Consultancy

The aim of this module is to develop an ability to evaluate concepts of strategic management, the strategy planning and development process and its implications for managers in sport organisations. This will involve an evaluation of the impacts of both the internal and external operating environment and the need to adopt appropriate management and organisational strategies to ensure effective performance.

Optional modules

Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.

Business Start-up

The key areas of study in this module include the small business enterprise sector where you will look at what constitutes a small business and the typology of small business behaviour in relation to growth and management styles. This includes economic and political influences on small business trends along with key determinants of small business success and failure.

Football, Sustainability and Social Change

The module examines the core concept of sustainability. What is it, and why does it matter for our understanding of the role that football plays in society? The module considers financial sustainability and unequal distribution of wealth, and the growing significance of environmental sustainability and the role of the football industry. The module also explores the significance of football as a platform for social change.

Global and Contemporary Issues

Due to the dynamic and fast paced evolution of this industry, contemporary and global issues within this module are not prescriptive, and topics and themes will change as the industry moves and progresses. Topics will cover trends and growth in sport from grass roots to high performance, facility management and community development, sports retail as well as specific globalisation issues including national identity, sports media and advertising, sports labour migration and sports fandom.

Globalisation of Football

This module explores the impact of the game's financialisation and global appeal, not simply to fans but increasingly to investors and sponsors. Students will consider the patterns of inequality that have emerged and what this means for different countries, regions, clubs, leagues, fans and players. The module also examines how the global game is governed, specifically by FIFA as it has become one of the most powerful and wealthiest political institutions in the world.

Managing Outdoor Learning and Adventurous Activities

Students will review knowledge and skills required to facilitate outdoor learning and will progress to being able to direct and manage outdoor learning courses to meet a broad range of learners’ needs. You will develop an understanding of the theory underpinning course design and consider issues relating specifically to the management of outdoor learning such as course structure, safeguarding, environmentally sustainable practice, staff competency, curriculum demands, and inclusion.

Professional Practice in Football Development

This module is designed to encourage you to apply theoretical concepts to the practical planning, management and evaluation of football development project work in order to reflect on implications for the sector. You will contribute to decision-making in real-world football development as well as develop the transferable professional attributes necessary for employment in a range of roles within the football industry.

Sociology of Extreme and Lifestyle Sports

This module looks to trace the emergence of alternative sports and through discourse on contested definitions of extreme and lifestyle sports begin to understand the meaning attributed to such sports. During the module you will explore the culture of lifestyle sports, media, commercialisation and mainstreaming, and the selling of risk. The module also aims to develop your critical abilities by examining literature discussing marginalized groups in lifestyle sport ie, gendered and racialised identities.

Strategic Sport Development

This module offers you the opportunity to apply previous learning and engage in critical discussion and debate across a wide range of highly topical issues that influence sport and physical activity within the UK.