Programme structure
The MSc Sport Policy, Management and International Development programme can be studied full-time or part-time. You’ll study a number of courses and complete a dissertation.
This programme critically examines the commercialised and media-orientated world of professional sport and the increasingly important realm of community sport.
It is designed for recent graduates from any discipline who seek the specialist knowledge necessary to be employed in sport. We also welcome current sports practitioners who are keen to develop their knowledge for career advancement.
We recognise that sport managers operate in a highly politicised environment, and the programme reviews the role of government in shaping sporting opportunities. We also examine sport’s contribution to social policy agendas such as crime prevention, health improvement, educational attainment and community building as well as its role in peace and reconciliation, leadership development, gender empowerment and disease prevention worldwide.
We focus on issues relevant to the management of sports organisations, including strategic management, leadership, organisational culture and behaviour, managing change, performance management, human resource management and risk management, all in relation to sport's unique social and political context.
This interpretation of sport management is deepened by examining how mass media structures-sport management debates, and we assess how the media can be used to the sport manager’s advantage. We analyse key sport marketing concepts to provide a foundation for managing sport communications through traditional and new social media.
The programme also studies fundamental aspects of research methods and links these to sport management concerns.
Programme structure
Masters degrees at the University of Edinburgh comprise 180 credits. The first 120 credits make up a Postgraduate Diploma, and assuming an average mark of 50% or more is achieved, then students can continue to the final 60 credits of the programme which is known as the dissertation component. Successful completion of the 180 credits leads to the award of MSc.
You will take seven compulsory courses. These courses will consist of a combination of lectures, seminars, case studies, industry visits and discussions.
Compulsory courses
- Sport and Culture Industry (20 credits)
- Sport Marketing and Communications (20 credits)
- Sport Policy (20 credits)
- Sport Resource Management (20 credits)
- Sport, Society and International Development (20 credits)
- Sources of knowledge: Understanding and analysing research literature (10 credits)
- Conceptualising research: Foundations, assumptions and praxis (10 credits)
Please note that courses and course content may change each year.
This course gave me an opportunity to think critically and engage with concepts that were valuable to other courses. [The course organiser's] detailed responses to final course assessment was very helpful; I will be able to employ the recommendations to improve performance in future assessments.
Dissertation
Successful performance on the taught courses will enable you to progress to the dissertation which must be completed for the award of MSc. In order to complete the dissertation, you also need to complete one additional compulsory course, Research Methods: Planning Research.
The dissertation is an independent research project. You will be able to select your topic from a list supplied by staff or you can - with the help of staff - tailor it to your particular research or career objectives.
Examples of dissertation projects from previous years:
- Re-thinking community sports development through sport social enterprises: a case study of the Crags Community Sports Centre
- The mediated representation of female athletes: a case study of Yani Tseng
- An exploration of how sport communications present culture: examining Nike UK and Nike China
- Stakeholder perceptions of talent identification and development in Scottish sport
- Using sport to prevent teenage pregnancies: a case study of the Chattanooga Sport Ministries
- Comparing local football development systems in India and England
- The effect of outdoor fitness equipment on community sport development in Dalian (China)
- Creating an effective brand for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games
- The opportunities and challenges with social media: a case study of Adidas
Part-time study
Please contact the programme director to discuss structure and courses should you wish to study part-time.
Contact the programme director
Lectures
On this degree programme, you will attend approximately 10 lectures for each 20 credit course. These will provide you with information on key debates around course issues while stimulating your knowledge, understanding and research skills, and enhancing your listening and note-taking skills.
Many lectures are informed by video material. Lectures are supported by recommended reading lists and other electronic resources, such as links to newspaper articles, posted onto the individual course online learning site.
Seminars
Lectures are also supported by weekly (two-hour) student-led seminars which provide opportunities for you to raise issues from the wider reading and clarify any queries with other students and staff. This process allows you to learn from peers and develop your communication skills, knowledge and understanding, and personal and intellectual autonomy.
Through the use of case studies across a wide range of sport sectors, you will enhance your knowledge and understanding of contemporary issues, while developing your personal and intellectual autonomy and problem-solving abilities.
Visits and guest speakers
Theoretical and practical knowledge of key issues is also enabled by visits to local sport organisations and a large number of guest speaker presentations by prominent sport practitioners. A number of these visits and guest speaker presentations are tied into assessments. This applied aspect will enhance your knowledge and understanding and make you think about future opportunities for research and enquiry.
This process is also encouraged via the research and scholarly activities of staff and the use of industry-based tutors. The latter, when combined with assignments linked to the sport industry, ensures learning experiences reflect sector concerns.
The assessment strategy utilises a number of tools to deliver the aims and learning outcomes, engage students, and make use of approaches that you may use in the workplace.
Knowledge and understanding, skills in research and enquiry, personal and intellectual autonomy are judged primarily through essays, a management report, written communications strategy, a policy brief, oral presentations, analysis of media texts, a viva, poster presentation, and the research-based dissertation.
These will enable you to communicate your knowledge of the particular subject while facilitating independent learning and an assessment of your ability to address problems, construct arguments and critically analyse issues.
Key to engaging students is allowing you to examine, in a range of assignments, sport organisations and issues from your own country.
Assessment Feedback
Feedback is key to enhancing the student experience and is delivered throughout the course in a number of ways.
You will be given informal feedback by staff on seminar discussions and email questions. The former is provided in one-to-one tutorials and/or in more informal sessions after lectures or seminars.
You will also be given individual and general feedback on non-credit bearing class assignments with this feed-forward designed to inform your actual assignments.
Staff also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of previous students’ assignments to enhance the quality of the current cohort’s efforts. Where two assignments make up the course, feedback on the first is delivered in time to inform your subsequent assignment.
Formal feedback is given in writing and will be discussed with you in a one-to-one meeting with the relevant course organiser.
Teaching informed by the latest research
You will be based in the Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences (ISPEHS) where our staff are undertaking research in diverse areas including:
- Sport, poverty and homelessness
- Sporting legacies from mega and major sport events
- Sport and militarism
- The politics of North and South Korean sport
- Leisure-based physical activity interventions
- Sport media and communication
- The politics of sport stadium protests
- Strategic sport management
- Gender equity in and through sport
This research informs the programme’s teaching, enabling you to benefit from cutting-edge knowledge and expertise.
Institute for Sport, Physical Education & Health Sciences (ISPEHS)
Research groups
Our programme is affiliated with two research groups, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Sport (ECSS) and Edinburgh Social and Political Sports Research Forum, which promote our commitment to research and research-led teaching. Formed in conjunction with internationally renowned researchers across UK, Asia, and North America, the members of the two productive research groups include international journal editors and reviewers and nationally and internationally recognised commentators. We regularly speak at national and international events and write media articles on sport.
Edinburgh Critical Studies in Sport (ECSS) Research Group
Edinburgh Social and Political Sports Research Forum
Facilities
The University is ranked among the best universities in the world for its Sport and Exercise facilities. We offer more than 60 sport clubs, including everything from fencing to skydiving, horse riding to ice hockey, and rugby to rock climbing.