Sport Performance Analysis - 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.

The BSc (Hons) Sport Performance Analysis degree offers you a module framework which provides the fundamental underpinning knowledge, skills, and understanding to be able to gain employment in a variety of specialist roles within the technologically driven sport performance analysis industry.

Year 1 (120 credits)

In year one, you build foundational knowledge in sport performance analysis, developing core technical skills in using commercial performance software to collect and interpret video and data feedback. You will gain a scientific understanding of performance analysis within coaching, athlete learning and multidisciplinary contexts. This stage of study supports academic skill development, professional growth, and engagement with industry-recognised certifications. Together, these experiences prepare you for further study by establishing the essential theoretical, practical, and professional foundations needed to support the analysis of sports performance.

Compulsory modules (120 credits):

• Fundamentals of System Design for Performance Analysis (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Delivering Feedback within Performance Analysis (20 credits)
• Multidisciplinary Applications of Performance Analysis (20 credits)
• Learning Design for Performance Analysis (20 credits)
• Professional and Academic Development (40 credits)*

Year 2 (120 credits)

In year two, students build on their foundational knowledge by applying performance analysis principles in real-world and vocational contexts. You develop advanced technical skills in data analysis and visualisation using business intelligence (BI) tools, alongside practical expertise in motion analysis software and hardware. Work-related learning and placements enhance professional experience, while project-based work and research activities strengthen analytical and reflective abilities. This year deepens your understanding of applied sport performance analysis and prepares you for more independent, specialised study in your final year of study.

Compulsory modules (120 credits):

• Applied Performance Analysis Placement (40 credits)
• Data Analysis and Visualisation in Sports (20 credits)
• Applied Sports Technologies for Motion Analysis (20 credits)
• Project-Based Learning (40 credits)*

Year 3 (120 credits)

In year three, you integrate and apply advanced knowledge and skills through a combination of core and optional modules designed to reflect real-world professional practice in high-performance sport. The compulsory components, including an independent Final Project, challenge you to critically analyse and interpret complex data, drawing on multiple sources to address industry-focused questions. Alongside this, you choose from a range of specialist options that allow you to tailor your learning to specific career interests and future study aspirations. This final year of study, consolidates expertise, promotes interdisciplinary thinking, and prepares you for diverse career pathways within sport performance analysis, as well as for progression into postgraduate study.

Compulsory modules (60 credits):

• Final Project (40 credits)*
• Advanced Performance Analysis and Profiling (20 credits)

Degree-specific options (40 or 60 credits):

• Industry Placement (20 credits)
• Applied Performance Analysis for Talent Identification (20 credits)
• Sports Data Analytics (20 credits)

Optional modules (choose 20 credits if only 40 credits selected above)**:

• Applied Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)
• Digital Voice: Communicating Sport Through Podcasting (20 credits)
• Managing High Performance Sport (20 credits)
• Sociology of Sports and Physical Cultures (20 credits)
• Ethical Issues in Sport (20 credits)

The overall goal of the programme is to ensure that, as a Sport Performance Analysis graduate, you develop both a strong theoretical foundation and the practical expertise to excel in high-performance sport settings. Throughout your studies, you will develop the analytical, technological, and communication skills needed to support athlete and team development. As you progress through your analysis journey, you will also enhance your ability to transfer these skills across different sports and professional contexts, preparing you for a diverse range of roles within sport performance analysis, data analytics, and beyond.

*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 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 Performance Analysis include:

• Learn, through real-world performance analysis projects, live data collection, and applied work with athletes and teams using industry-standard technology and software.
• Industry experienced practitioners and researchers are integral to the learning package offered to our students.
• Opportunities to gain supplementary vocational qualifications alongside the taught programme.
• Excellent sport performance analysis specific facilities to enhance your student learning experience.

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 a research, innovation, consultancy or community project.

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.

Authentic learning experiences are provided through close collaboration with on-campus placement providers within Cardiff Met Sport. This approach involves working with sport systems and performance services partners in practical settings, providing you with applied learning opportunities. In addition, you have access to external placements with trusted industry partners, further broadening your professional experience and exposure to real-world performance environments. This curriculum design enhances your applied knowledge and analytical expertise within performance analysis, while developing skills in data interpretation, tactical and technical evaluation and evidence-based decision-making. It also builds your ability to communicate insights effectively to coaches, athletes and multidisciplinary teams, alongside developing strong collaboration and problem-solving skills within high-performance environments.

The day-to-day culture of performance analysis provision, coupled with vocationally relevant experiences, creates an environment complementary to learning and professional development. This is exemplified by the successful recruitment of graduates by major clubs and international teams in a range of sports. Recent Cardiff Met graduates from Sport Performance Analysis are now working for the UKSI, FIFA, Sport Wales, Welsh Rugby Union, England Rugby, Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion, Southampton FC, Bristol City LFC, Cardiff Blues, Scarlets Rugby, Ospreys Rugby, Dragons Rugby, Scottish Rugby Union, Bath RFC, Glamorgan Cricket, and further afield, such as Canada Rugby, Moroccan Football Association and New South Wales Institute of Sport in Australia. Other students have continued onto further postgraduate study.

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: 120-128
• 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: Minimum three A levels to include grades BB. No specific subjects required. Welsh Advanced Skills Baccalaureate considered as a third subject.
• BTEC National / Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma: DDM
• T Level: Merit – Distinction.
• 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: Grades CC. 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