Sport & Physical Education - BSc (Hons) Degree

This degree can be studied as a three-year full-time degree or a four-year full-time degree that includes a year of foundational study.

We offer two foundation year routes for our undergraduate sport degrees; each delivered at a different campus.

You can choose to study the Sport Foundation Year at our Cyncoed Campus, or the Management Foundation Year at our Llandaff Campus, depending on your interests and preferred location.

Whichever route you choose, successful completion will allow you to progress onto one of our undergraduate sport degrees.

Find out more about the foundation years:

• Foundation Leading to Sport
• Foundation Leading to Management (Sport)

The foundation year is intended to prepare you for your subsequent years of studying, offering you the chance to strengthen your skills, knowledge and confidence. The foundation year will be relevant to:

1. Students who aspire to enrol onto the first year of a science-based honours degree programme within the Cardiff School of Health Sciences, who have not achieved the standard entry requirements to enter at year one of the chosen degree.
2. Students who have not studied subjects that provide the necessary background within the scientific disciplines required to enter at year one of the chosen degree.
3. Mature students who have been out of the formal education system for some time.

Please note: You will need to apply using a specific UCAS code if you wish to undertake the 4 years including foundation.

Our BSc (Hons) Sport & Physical Education degree equips you with the knowledge, skills, and professional experience to thrive in education, sport, and health sectors. Over three years, you’ll progress from building a strong foundation in theory and practice, to experimenting with innovative approaches, and finally to becoming a confident change maker ready to influence the future of sport and physical education.

You’ll learn in a dynamic environment that blends classroom study with hands-on experiences, working with school children, exploring contemporary debates, and gaining real-world practice. Along the way, you’ll build the adaptability, confidence, and expertise needed for careers in a wide range of vocations and professions.

Year 1 (120 credits)

In your first year, you’ll explore the contemporary landscape of physical education, grounding your learning in key theories and applying them in practice. You’ll be supported as you transition into university life, developing the academic skills, knowledge, and confidence to succeed as an undergraduate.

Through innovative teaching and practical experiences with school children, you’ll begin to apply theory to practice and develop as a reflective, adaptable educator. You’ll also take part in professional development activities that set the stage for your future career in sport and physical education.

All compulsory modules:

• Professional and Academic Development (40 credits)*
• Holistic Child Development (20 credits)*
• The Movement Lab (20 credits)
• Debates in Physical Education (20 credits)*
• High Quality Physical Education (20 credits)*

Year 2 (120 credits)

In your second year, the focus shifts to innovation and professional practice. You’ll be encouraged to reimagine the future of physical education, experimenting with new teaching approaches and applying theory in real-world contexts.

Work-based learning opportunities will help you develop your teaching practice, broaden your approaches, and strengthen your confidence as an educator. You’ll also tailor your academic journey by choosing from a wide range of optional modules, allowing you to follow your interests and gain specialist expertise.

Compulsory modules (100 credits):

• Professional Enquiry in Practice (40 credits)*
• Visions for Physical Health Education (20 credits)*
• Innovate to Educate (20 credits)*
• Psychology in Physical Education (20 credits)

Optional modules (choose 20 credits)**:

• Nutrition: Macro and Micronutrients (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Strength and Conditioning (20 credits)
• Personal Training for Public Health (20 credits)
• Sport, Health and Society (20 credits)
• Sport Performance Analysis (20 credits)
• Sport Development: Context and Challenges (20 credits)
• Sustainable Development and Sport (20 credits)
• Sport Ethics (20 credits)*
• Athlete Learning: Coaching with Sport Science Data (20 credits)
• Creating Sport Content – Video for Social Media (20 credits)

Year 3 (120 credits)

Your final year is the culmination of your journey. You’ll take on ambitious modules that challenge you to apply your accumulated knowledge and practical experience, while demonstrating both creative and scholarly excellence.

Through your independent Final Project and specialist modules, you’ll graduate ready to propose meaningful changes in physical education and contribute as a leader within the sector. You’ll also have the opportunity to gain industry experience or engage in work-based learning as an agent for change, further preparing you for your chosen career. You’ll continue to tailor your academic journey by choosing from a range of optional modules.

Compulsory (80 credits):

• Final Project (40 credits)*
• Physical Education, Health and Wellbeing (40 credits)*

Degree-specific option modules (20 credits):

• Industry Placement (20 credits)
• Agents for Change (20 credits)

Optional modules (20 credits)**:

• Strength and Conditioning Coaching (20 credits)
• Nutrition in Sport and Exercise (20 credits)
• Exercise Practitioner (20 credits)
• Ethical Issues in Sport (20 credits)*
• Sociology of Sports and Physical Cultures (20 credits)
• Sport Development in Action: Policy, Process and Practice (20 credits)
• Applied Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)
• Managing High Performance Sport (20 credits)
• Digital Voice: Communicating Sport Through Podcasting (20 credits)

By the time you graduate, you will leave with more than just a degree. You will have developed a strong theoretical understanding of the sport and physical education sectors, combined with practical experience in schools and community settings, and specialist expertise shaped by your chosen modules. Alongside this, you will build the confidence to thrive across a wide range of vocational and professional roles. Many graduates also progress into postgraduate study, such as a PGCE, further enhancing their professional opportunities. This degree will equip you with the versatility to succeed in an evolving sector and to make a meaningful impact in an evolving Sport and Physical Education landscape.

*Available through the medium of Welsh.

**We believe your education should reflect your interests, ambitions, and future goals. That’s why on this degree we are offering you a bank of option modules from which to select, enabling you to shape your learning journey. Having a bank of options from across a range of sports related disciplines in year two and three will let you personalise your degree, deepen your expertise, work with students and staff from different degrees, and build a wider range of skills for a changing world. Whilst we are offering you a choice of optional modules these will delivered subject to demand and availability.

Effective learning, teaching and assessment methods underpin the educational aims and the learning outcomes of all our programmes and modules. Throughout our undergraduate degrees we focus on providing the authentic learning experiences to both challenge and develop all our students. Authentic learning is a learner-centred approach in which you’ll develop your knowledge and skills by engaging in, and addressing, real life problems that demand the use of higher order thinking skills, real world resources and tools while thinking and acting like an expert within the context of your degree. Across the range of undergraduate sport degrees, you’ll experience “project and practice ways of working”, where you’ll experience working on real challenges, projects or problems set by people and communities that value to support and solutions that you can offer and acknowledge the value of learning through real experiences.

To facilitate authentic learning, we utilise a diverse range of learning and teaching methods that may include lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials and practical sessions. All of these are supported by our Virtual Learning Environment which is an integral but flexible aspect of the learning package that supports your needs. Typically, lead lectures introduce key topics, concepts and challenges, whilst seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions focus on the application of key concepts with the aim of enhancing your student experience and engagement. We work hard to provide authentic, student-centred learning opportunities that deliver a high quality and flexible learning environment but focuses on enabling you to develop into a flexible, highly employable graduate of the future.

Learning and teaching methods will also emphasise and facilitate the development of your critical reasoning and encourage the integration of practice and theory. Throughout your studies, you will experience both tutor-led learning and self-directed methods of learning, increase independence and reflection and encourage you to develop a positive attitude toward lifelong learning. Along the way you’ll have the support of a Personal Academic Tutor who is there to support you pastorally and academically during your time at Cardiff Met.

We aim to help you to develop into a reflective professional and critical scholar.

In your sport degree at Cardiff Met, you will encounter a learning experience from induction to graduation that is coherent, challenging and develops your confidence, competence and identity within your programme of study.

Specific features of the learning experience on Sport & Physical Education include:

• Practically based: Through authentic learning experiences with school children on campus, to developing your teaching practice in community or school setting, to working with real-world projects to create change – you will learn by doing.
• The future of PE: This degree explores the current and future landscape of PE and challenges you to reimagine the possibilities and future of this sector.
• Working with people: You’ll learn about the role of an educator to impact learner engagement and development – skills that will prepare you for a broad range of careers.
• Ahead of the curve: Taking an explorative approach to your learning, alongside modules exploring AI, innovative and creative teaching practice, you’ll graduate ready for the future – not just the present.
• Supported journey: You’ll be part of a collaborative and supportive learning community, with expert academic staff guiding you to achieve your personal and professional goals.

The assessment strategies for each module vary to ensure that most appropriate method is implemented for your area of study. Modes of assessment are designed to both enhance but also challenge your learning experience whilst ensuring that you have fulfilled the learning outcomes linked to each module. Assessment also ensures that you have achieved the standard required to progress to the next stage or to qualify for an award. The modules are designed to support your learning experience by providing opportunities for you to engage in formative and summative assessments to test your knowledge, ability, skill, and critical understanding. The undergraduate modules are assessed using a diverse range of assessment methods. For example:

• Written coursework
• Group challenges
• Oral presentations
• Portfolios of work and evidence
• Seen and unseen exams
• Practical skills
• Viva voce examinations
• Professional discussions
• Industry placements and situational learning
• Other activities designed to assess, develop, and enhance academic and employability skills

You will be expected to complete a final project as part of the assessment of your honour’s degree. Final projects are major pieces of work that may be research, enterprise, consultancy or community-based projects. These fit alongside the specific core and optional modules, serving as a showcase to potential employers or postgraduate providers.

The nature of the Sport & PE degree requires you to demonstrate both theory and application, and therefore assessments within modules include both theoretical assessments alongside practical assessments and presentations.

All undergraduate sport degrees are underpinned by the Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences employability framework. This framework has been developed as a holistic curricular and extra-curricular approach to embedding employability across the undergraduate portfolio, and ensures programmes recognise and develop opportunities to enhance your employability by blending the following elements:

• Disciplinary knowledge
• Work based learning
• Work related learning
• Career development planning
• Entrepreneurship and enterprise education
• Graduate skills and lifelong learning
• Developing professional identity

During your first year of study, you will get the opportunity to undertake professional development activities across a diverse range of industry relevant areas including sport coaching, exercise training, and health and safety. These opportunities will ensure that you have the appropriate qualifications and experience to progress with your studies and, where your programme requires it, apply for one of the many work placement opportunities on offer both on and off campus. We will also support you to seek opportunities to work or study abroad or engage in a year in industry.

Specific features of the careers and employability on Sport & Physical Education include:

• Work with industry: Benefit from Cardiff Met’s Open Campus way of working. You’ll gain experience, contacts, and insight through work-based learning, placements and collaboration projects with key stakeholders.
• Digital skills: Build skills through meaningful and ethical engagement with a variety of digital platforms. You’ll be ready for roles in fast-moving digital world.
• Professional development: Engage with a wealth of professional development opportunities that set the stage for your future career in sport and physical education.

Graduates from this degree have gone on to a wide range of successful careers. Many progress onto a PGCE and now enjoy rewarding roles as teachers, while others pursue careers in sport coaching, community sport development, educational policy, or the uniformed services. Some graduates continue their academic journey through our MSc programmes, with opportunities to progress even further to doctoral-level study. Whatever path you choose, this degree provides the knowledge, experience, and professional skills to open doors across education, sport, health, and beyond.

Typical Offers

The following requirements are based on typical offers relevant to entering year 1 of the degree.

If you do not meet these entry requirements, we also offer two foundation year routes that would allow progression to Year 1 upon successful completion. Find out more about these two foundation routes in the ‘Foundation Year’ section (above) on this page.

• Tariff points: 104-112
• Contextual offer: See our contextual offers page.
• GCSE: Five GCSEs at Grade C / 4 or above to include English Language / Welsh First Language, Mathematics / Mathematics – Numeracy.
• English Language Requirement: Academic IELTS 6.0 overall with at least 5.5 in all elements, or equivalent.
• A level subjects: Three A levels to include grade B. No specific subjects required. Welsh Advanced Skills Baccalaureate considered as a third subject.
• BTEC National / Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma: DMM
• T Level: Merit.
• Access to Higher Education Diploma: 15 Level 3 credits at Distinction and 30 Level 3 credits at Merit. No specific subjects required.
• International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: Higher Level Grade 6. No specific subjects required.
• Irish Leaving Certificate: 3 x H2. No specific subjects required. Higher level subjects only considered, with a minimum grade H4.
• Scottish Advanced Highers: Grade C. No specific subjects required. Scottish Highers are also considered, either on their own or in combination with Advanced Highers.

Combinations of the above qualifications are accepted if they meet our minimum requirements. If your qualifications aren’t listed, please contact Admissions or refer to the UCAS Course Search.

Further information on Overseas qualifications can be found here.

If you are a mature applicant, have relevant experience or RPL that you would like us to consider, please contact Admissions.

How to Apply

Further information on how to apply can be found here.

For general enquiries, please contact the Admissions Team on 029 2041 6044 or email askadmissions@cardiffmet.ac.uk.

For course specific enquiries, please contact the Programme Support Team:

• Email: CSSHSLTSE@cardiffmet.ac.uk