Sport and Exercise Science

Want a career where you could play a major role in a top athlete’s success or help an injured or elderly person to walk again? Our Sport and Exercise Science degree leads to lots of exciting opportunities, pushing the boundaries of human performance.

We have graduates who run their own businesses, work for professional football clubs and national sport institutes, and who’ve landed jobs as far afield as the US and Australia. It all began with the skills, experience and connections they developed here at Staffordshire University.

Our degree is also endorsed by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), which means we meet rigorous national standards. We’re one of the first in the UK to secure this endorsement for our Strength and Conditioning specialist pathway too.

What’s more, our industry links include associations with professional sports clubs, national governing bodies, healthcare providers and education and training providers.

On the course, you’ll explore the fundamentals of exercise physiology, sport psychology and biomechanics. It will involve practical studies in both laboratory and field settings, using our contacts with a wide range of organisations.

You’ll learn how to apply your skills and knowledge in different ways, so you could be working in elite sport, helping with rehabilitation, or improving health and wellbeing within the community. You could be putting data to use or developing personalised intervention programmes and coaching regimes.

Our facilities include specialist labs for physiology, body composition, biomechanics, and strength and conditioning. From building muscle strength through applying appropriate training principles - including the use of Olympic weightlifting - through to understanding the science of movement and the physiological and psychological demands of human performance and rehabilitation, you’ll get to grips with lots of specialist equipment.

Other opportunities include working for our Peak Condition Service, where you’ll help real athletes under supervision from BASES-accredited staff.

In the second year of the course, you can choose between continuing on a traditional, broad-based Sport and Exercise Science route or taking the BASES-endorsed Strength and Conditioning pathway.

The traditional, broad-based pathway provides comprehensive delivery of all of the BASES core Sport and Exercise Sciences. It provides a range of employability-focused specialisms and specifically provides the initial step for those interested in becoming a Sport and Exercise Psychologist. This BASES-endorsed programme allows students to go onto an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology before pursuing the Sport and Exercise Psychology Accreditation Route (SEPAR via BASES) to become a HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist.

If you opt for the specialist pathway, you’ll be delving more deeply into how we get the body working better with exercise interventions. It will cover all aspects of strength and conditioning, endurance training, and rehabilitation, while exploring how individuals can achieve optimum performance. The strength and conditioning pathway is mapped against the competencies of the United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association (UKSCA) and the International Universities Strength and Conditioning Association (IUSCA).

Our academics bring a wealth of expertise and experience to the degree, including world-class research in areas such as the biomechanics of movement and human performance, physiological considerations for women athletes, and psychological wellbeing and performance under pressure. You can get involved with supporting their research projects, as well as completing your own piece of research for your dissertation.

Year One Core: Conducting Research; Fundamental Introduction to Exercise Prescription; Fundamental Principles of Human Movement for Sports Performance and Minimising Injury Risk; Fundamentals of Exercise Physiology; Fundamentals of the Psychology of Sport and Exercise; Reviewing Scientific Literature
Year Two Core: Advanced Sport and Exercise Psychology; Biomechanical Analysis of Human Movement for Sport, Exercise and Health; Conducting Rigorous Research; Exercise Physiology; Placement: Sport and Exercise Science; Sports Nutrition
Year Three Core: Applied Biomechanics to Enhance Sports Performance and to Guide Rehabilitation Interventions; Contemporary Issues in Clinical Sport and Exercise Science; Exercise Physiology for Sports Performance; Independent Investigational Project; The Psychology of Competitive Performance: Theory and Practice