Sport Management - 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.

Studying a Sport Management degree at Cardiff Met will provide you with the core knowledge, skills and understanding to undertake managerial roles in the global sports industry. The degree also provides you with an opportunity to specialise in a specific area of interest through a choice of three optional pathways in Years Two and Three: Leadership, Marketing, or Sport Development.

Year 1 (120 credits)

Year one consists of five core modules, including one 40 credit module in Professional and Academic Development that students from all sports programmes must complete. Delivered alongside this module during your first term is a contextual module that will develop your knowledge and understanding of the global industry, including its evolution, political and socio-economic characteristics, so that you can undertake more detailed application and investigation of concepts, theories and issues in Term 2 and beyond. The three remaining core modules are all 20 credits in value and will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the core theories and concepts in Marketing, Operations Management and Business Management, so that you can apply these to authentic real word scenarios.

All compulsory modules:

• Understanding the Global Sport Industry (20 credits)
• Introduction to Sport Business Management (20 credits)
• Introduction to Sport Marketing (20 credits)
• Operations Management in Sport (20 credits)
• Professional and Academic Development (40 credits)*

Year 2 (120 credits)

Your second year builds on the foundation of year one and will deepen your understanding of marketing, operations management, research and enterprise, through related core modules. You will also embrace new subjects through core modules in leadership and people management, and managing sports events and services, as well as one optional module choice that gives you scope to either specialise in a specific pathway (Marketing, Leadership, or Sport Development) or explore other areas of interest such as Business Analytics or Sustainable Development, or undertake a Professional Placement with a local sports industry employer. You will also complete a 40-credit module in Project Based-Learning, which will require you to undertake and deliver a group project that must be underpinned by research, and to utilise established enterprise and design thinking strategies:

Compulsory modules (100 credits):

• Applied Sport Marketing Communications (20 credits)
• Leading and Managing People in Sport (20 credits)
• Managing Sports Events & Services (20 credits)
• Project-Based Learning (40 credits)*

Optional modules (choose 20 credits)**:

• Digital Marketing Communication for Managers (20 credits)
• Sport Development: Context and Challenges (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Team Leadership (20 credits)
• Sport Business Analytics (20 credits)
• Professional Placement (20 credits)
• Sustainable Development and Sport (20 credits)

Year 3 (120 credits)

The module content and approach to learning in your final year will require you to consider higher order strategic and socio-economic aspects of running sport which runs in parallel with the development of critical and analytical skills, important in more senior managerial roles. Furthermore, the final year is structured to cultivate you as an independent and reflective learner, capable of taking ownership of your personal and professional development and making informed decisions about your future career paths or further studies.

Compulsory modules (100 credits):

• Strategic Management and Change (20 credits)
• Economics of Sport (20 credits)
• Sport Management Industry Placement (20 credits)
• Final Project (40 credits)*

Optional modules (choose 20 credits)**:

• Strategic Sport Brand Management (20 credits)
• Sports Governance and Leadership (20 credits)
• Sport Development in Action: Policy, Process and Practice (20 credits)
• Strategic Sports Events Management (20 credits)
• Managing High Performance Sport (20 credits)

*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 Management include:

• Internationally renowned researchers and industry experienced tutors that are integral to the learning package offered to our students.
• World-class on-campus and local facilities, which are utilised to enhance the student learning experience and apply the theoretical knowledge in a real-world setting.
• Excellent industry partnerships which are used to underpin and enhance the delivery of the degree.
• All aspects of Learning and Teaching utilise the most recent research literature and are aligned to industry Professional Standards (CIMPSA).
• A degree that has been endorsed by industry partners and meets employer needs.

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.

The nature of the Sport Management degree requires you to demonstrate both theory (evidence-based practice) and application (practical skills), and therefore assessments within Sport Management modules include both theoretical assessments alongside practical assessments in applied settings such as projects, events, pitches, and group activities.

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.

Graduates from Sport Management are now working in professional and semi-professional sport, national agencies and governing bodies of sport, local authority and social enterprise-based organisations, community related organisations, as well as commercial sport and fitness.

Some students also pursue their own opportunities and set up businesses based on ideas that they have generated during their studies. There is on-going enterprise support available from the Cardiff Met Entrepreneurship service designed to help provide the best chance to create a successful enterprise. This includes business mentoring, funding advice, free office space and networking opportunities.

Other students have continued onto further study through our Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Cardiff Met or other Higher Education institutions offering similar courses, and some have further progressed to doctoral level studies.

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