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Sport scientists use knowledge of how the body works to help people improve their health or sporting ability. On this course you'll study the science behind sports, covering areas like physiology, nutrition, biomechanics and psychology.

The course at Worcester is hands-on and practical, with lab work and industry placements. You'll be prepared for a wide range of jobs, whether that's enhancing the performance of elite athletes, or promoting healthy living in the wider community. You could work in an NHS or private hospital, on a sports field, at a research facility, in an office, at a client's business or at a fitness centre.

Overview

Overview

  • 95% of our Sport and Exercise Science graduates are in work or further study 15 months after graduating (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2022)
  • Top 10 for student satisfaction. Our Sports courses are 9th in the UK for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2024)

Logo stating that this is a British Associate of Sport and Exercise Science (BASES) endorsed course
Entry requirements

Entry requirements

104
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

104 UCAS Tariff points (for example, BCC at A Level).

An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) may be required for some modules.

Other information

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from the UCAS website.

Course content

Course content

Each year you will study a mix of mandatory and optional modules. This flexible course lets you explore different subjects and career paths in sports and exercise science before choosing to specialise in your final year.

Year 1

Mandatory modules


Introduction to the Scientific Study of Sport, Exercise & Physical Activity

Using a Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach, this module involves considering the multi-disciplinary nature of sports science through detailed consideration of sport and exercise literature. You will begin to understand how the various scientific disciplines influencing sporting performance interact, and how performance can be measured and improved through appropriate interventions. You will also be introduced to the key principles of measurement and evaluation of scientific data, developing key skills relating to scientific analysis and presentation of data.

Foundations of Human Movement

This module introduces the study of sport and exercise through motor learning and biomechanical analysis of motion. As well as demonstrating the role of biomechanics in determining performance, the module also covers some of the analytical techniques required for the objective study of human movement that will enable further study throughout the degree route. You will explore the concepts of skill learning and motor control to develop an awareness of theories of movement.

Psychology of Sport, Exercise & Physical Activity

This module enables you to recognise and explain the psychological characteristics that influence behaviour in sport and exercise. It introduces the nature of psychological approaches to the study of sport and exercise and underpins how psychology can be used within sport and exercise domains. Understanding the sport and exercise experience is a crucial foundation for prospective careers within the sports and exercise industry and the purpose of the module is to help you to gain a holistic understanding of the nature of sport and exercise through investigation of psychological theories impacting on this experience.

Physiology of Sport, Exercise & Physical Activity

This module introduces you to the physiological basis of sport & exercise performance. You will consider the cardio-respiratory responses to exercise and develop skills in the collection of physiological data during laboratory practical sessions, as well as scientific writing, numeracy, and data presentation skills.

Optional modules

Optional modules will run if they receive enough interest. It is not guaranteed that all modules will run every year.


Exercise Training and Prescription

This module provides you with an introduction to the basic principles underpinning the design of physical training programmes aimed at improving either health related fitness or sporting performance. Issues related to the design and delivery of both individual exercise sessions and longer-term programmes are considered through reference to exercise training theory.

Professional Skills for Sport & Exercise Scientists

This module will increase your awareness of the diverse range of employment opportunities in the sports sector and identify the skills required to meet industry demands. You will have the opportunity to map your skill set against industry requirements to devise a skills development plan against future career roles, develop employability skills via engagement in a range of activities, and deliver a project as part of a collaborative team.

Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills

Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills

Year 2

Mandatory modules


Creating Successful Research in Sport & Exercise Science

This module develops knowledge of Sport & Exercise Science research skills introduced earlier in the course, providing you with the skills and knowledge required to interpret and evaluate contemporary literature, and to design research procedures that are valid, reliable, and ethically sound. The module will prepare you to complete an independent research project later in your degree.

Scientific Underpinnings of Sport Performance

The current repertoire of sporting activities presents different challenges for participating individuals. Using an inter-disciplinary approach, you will investigate the demands of endurance, power, multi-sprint, and team sports. Assessment of these demands will occur across the key disciplines utilising the most suitable protocols. There will be opportunities to analyse and interpret the resulting data against published normative values and underpinning theoretical concepts.

Scientific Underpinnings of Physical Activity, Exercise and Health

This module covers the current recommendations for exercise testing and prescription for health. Largely based on the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines, it will enable you to develop a clear understanding of recognised safe practice when dealing with clients with a range of ages, clinical conditions, and functional capacities. Practical experience will be used to demonstrate and contextualise theoretical principles.

Industry Skills for Sport & Exercise Scientists

This module draws on evidence from industry to raise your awareness of the demands of the workplace and prepare you for the pressures and responsibilities of business. Within a sport and exercise context, you will undertake a series of team challenges that will require you to work as an effective multi-disciplinary team developing key industry skills of problem-solving, leadership, communication, collaboration, negotiation, and organisation.

Optional modules

Optional modules will run if they receive enough interest. It is not guaranteed that all modules will run every year.


Nutrition for Sport & Exercise

Nutritional intake and individual nutritional status are the cornerstone of good health and optimised sports performance. This module enables you to apply scientific knowledge on the way nutrition and diet can affect and enhance health and athletic performance. You will also develop knowledge of nutrients and their food sources, as well as the nutritional demands of specific sporting populations. Throughout the module, you will learn the skills required to identify the nutritional needs of identified sports performers, suggesting intervention strategies in order to contribute to the optimisation of sports performance.

Introduction to Strength and Conditioning

Strength, power, and speed are key determinants of performance in a wide range of sports. This module is designed to improve your understanding of the mechanical and physiological determinants of muscular force production and to equip you with industry relevant practical skills. You will identify the theoretical underpinnings of muscular force production, including muscle mechanics and fibre characteristics, the relationship between strength variables, and optimal training strategies utilising the principles of training and periodisation. Theoretical understanding and practical proficiency in training and assessment techniques will be assessed in the application of programme design to improve sporting performance.

Performance Analysis

This module explores the discipline of performance analysis and provides an understanding of the need for feedback within the coaching process. You will identify and develop suitable measures of performance along with factors that result in performance variability, as well as an awareness of the practical issues associated with the development of a valid and reliable performance analysis system.

Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills

Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills

Year 3

Mandatory modules


Sport & Exercise Science Independent Research Project

This module gives you the opportunity to undertake tutor-approved independent research into previously encountered aspects from your Sports & Exercise Science course. You will be allocated an academic tutor who will support and advise you throughout the module. The module requires you to present your report in a journal article format prior to a short presentation on your research topic.

Work-Based Learning (Sport and Exercise Science Placement)

In this module, you will complete a 40-hour work placement in sport and exercise science. The module provides you with the opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills that you’ve developed during your studies and apply them to the practical delivery of sport and exercise science support services. Through a period of supervised applied practice, you will apply your knowledge of sport and exercise science to enhance the performance of an individual through the provision of an assessment based scientific support programme. You will also develop the ability to critically reflect on their own personal and professional development.

Optional modules

Optional modules will run if they receive enough interest. It is not guaranteed that all modules will run every year.


Psychological Considerations for Sport, Exercise & Health

This module involves hands-on experience, requiring you to work with athletes or clients to assess psychological needs and develop relevant skills. Through the module, you will explore how psychological elements influence performance in sports and exercise settings with an emphasis on understanding and analysing the mental aspects of training, competition, and overall well-being in the context of sport. Topics covered include the psychological responses to injury, dealing with anxiety in high performance settings, and understanding how to operate across diverse environments and with athletes with a disability. You will develop your applied practice skills when working with athlete, knowledge of psychological testing data and will engage with tools and techniques to develop psychological skills. The module provides a comprehensive understanding of the psychological aspects of sport and exercise, emphasising practical application and the development of interpersonal skills for working with diverse populations.

Biomechanical Analysis of Sports Techniques

This module is designed to further develop the principles used in the kinematic and kinetic analysis of human movement in sport. It focuses on providing you with a structured approach to analysing movement, enabling you to identify key components of technique that influence performance. You will gain experience in obtaining quantitative data from sporting movements using techniques involving video analysis and force plate measurements.

Physiological Support of the Elite Athlete

This module considers the issues important to the provision of physiological support to athletes training and competing in a range of different environments, as well as the impact of various environmental stressors on human performance and strategies that can be implemented to minimise their negative effects. You will explore the practical application of exercise physiology theory to the support of athletes in a range of training and competition situations. Emphasis is placed on the physiological effects of various environmental stressors and the formulation of guidelines and interventions designed to minimise any negative effects on human performance.

Clinical Exercise Physiology

This module provides an understanding of the physiological adaptations that occur from physical activity and their impact on health, specifically focusing on the role physical activity plays in the prevention and treatment of both chronic physical disease and mental illness. You will develop a critical understanding of how scientific and physiological evidence and theory can be used to inform exercise intervention design.

Advanced Sports Nutrition

Sports nutrition is a rapidly evolving area, with new supplements and dietary regimes emerging frequently. There is a growing demand for nutritional strategies to enhance performance across a wide range of sporting activities. Specialist diets and nutritional strategies are commonplace in the athletic domain, meaning an up-to-date understanding of current dietary trends and supplements are essential. This module investigates the efficacy of contemporary nutritional trends from a critical research approach. Additionally, you will consider the specific nutritional needs of a range of specialist groups of athletes and sports.

Advanced Training & Conditioning

Athletic ability is a key determinant of performance in a wide range of sports. This module covers topics including training methodology, testing and interpretation of athletic performance, and periodisation for elite athletes. Specialised conditions such as youth athletes, strategies for rehabilitation, and workload and athlete management will also be addressed. You will critical examination of the physiological and biomechanical mechanisms that underpin training adaptations for elite athletes. This module has a strong practical based element to develop proficiency in training and assessment techniques.

The Sport Entrepreneur

This module focuses on you as a would-be sports entrepreneur and develops the potential to acquire an entrepreneurial capability. It equips you with the ability to understand the business start-up process and to pitch your own business idea to a group of selected panel members. You will learn about your own skills and attributes and your readiness to initiate business ideas and apply entrepreneurial solutions to market opportunities and threats.

Applied Performance Analysis

This module explores the discipline of performance analysis and provides a complete understanding of the need for feedback within the coaching process. You will use appropriate software packages and work with a coach as a performance analyst. The purpose of this module is to enable you to apply knowledge of performance analysis techniques to a specific activity and give meaningful feedback to assist the coach in future planning. The role of performance analysis to enhance coaching and subsequently, performance is appreciated.

Discover sports at Worcester

Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

Our course has been designed by academics and industry specialists to prepare you for a career in sport and exercise science. So our teaching is a combination of practical lab work, seminars, lectures and one-to-one tutoring.

Evaluation is not all about written assignments and exams, you’ll also be assessed on your lab skills and through oral and poster presentations.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and laboratory practicals. Lectures will provide students with the fundamental knowledge and key concepts required for the degree. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures, and laboratory practicals are focused on developing subject specific skills and applied individual and group project work. You will study physiology, psychology and biomechanics, as well as modules that explore the way in which these disciplines interact to affect both sporting performance and health. We aim to provide a learning context that will explore the full potential of all participants and encourage excellence in both theory and practice. You will also gain a thorough grounding in the investigative and research techniques required in order to work effectively in this field.

The expertise of the staff includes sports coaching and teaching, match analysis, biomechanics, exercise physiology, sports motivation and sports development. Students may have opportunities to take part in research projects. In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You will use industry-standard software and have access to laboratory and computer facilities throughout the course.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include written examinations and a range of coursework assessments such as written essays and reports, written, oral and practical exams, oral and poster presentations and a final year independent studies project.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1
  • 4 exams
  • 1 practical exam
  • 3 poster presentations
  • 2 oral presentations
  • 5 written assignments
Year 2
  • 2 exams
  • 2 practical exams
  • 2 poster presentations
  • 3 oral presentations
  • 6 written assignments
Year 3
  • 1 poster presentations
  • 4 oral presentations
  • 7 written assignments
  • 1 independent Research Project of 4000-6000 words

Contact time

In a typical week students will have around 12-16 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year there is normally slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study. Typically, class contact time will be structured around:

  • 1-2 hours of lead lectures
  • 2-3 hours of laboratory practicals or seminars

Independent study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 24-28 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics with research and consultancy experience, postgraduate students' laboratory technical staff and demonstrators. In addition you can expect to receive sessions with guest lecturers who are currently engaged in Sport and Exercise science activities outside of the university.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and the majority of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.

Course highlights

Interior view of the University of Worcester Arena

University Arena

Our 2,000-seat arena was designed to be accessible to all. It regularly hosts televised sporting events and is home to the Severn Stars professional netball team.

Students working in sports lab

Hands-on learning

Unlike some universities, our labs are used day in day out for teaching - not reserved solely for academic research. By the time you graduate you will have plenty of experience using industry-standard equipment.

Students in a team building exercise

Friends for life

We organise regular social events that bring together all course year groups. Students love our "alternative olympics" and Christmas quiz. You'll build bonds with other students that will endure for decades.

Student instructing gym user

Earn as you learn

Our students work in the gym, the Arena and at Open Events. You can also join our subsidised coach education programme - to gain the qualifications needed for part-time work with our partners around the city.

Careers

Careers

Most people start this course knowing they love sport, but not knowing exactly what career they want to go into. Which is why we give you the chance to explore lots of different subjects from strength and conditioning, biomechanics, and performance analysis, through to nutrition, clinical physiology, and psychology.

While you’re exploring these subjects and the jobs they lead to, we also work with you on the professional skills needed for a successful career. In each of the three years, there’s a dedicated employability module – where you look at the real jobs out there, practice CV writing, interviewing and develop your skills for the workplace. This culminates with a work placement in your final year

Dr Jon Francis and colleague at at a wheelchair basketball event

Performance sport careers

Our graduates go on to work with a professional sports team or individual athletes as:

  • Performance analysts
  • Strength and conditioning coaches
  • Sports data scientists
  • High-performance managers

And with postgraduate training, as:

  • Nutritionists
  • Biomechanists
  • Sport psychologists
millie-coaching-sport-strength-conditioning

Health, exercise and wellbeing careers

Throughout the course many decide they want to use their passion for sport and exercise to improve the health and wellbeing of others. With further education they enter careers within the NHS or with private health providers like Nuffield Health, including as:

  • Sports therapists
  • Dietitians
  • Cardiac rehabilitation specialists
  • Fitness and wellbeing advisors

Other options

Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees - UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Full-time tuition fees - International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £16,200 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

All Physical Education and Sports Coaching students are expected to wear School of Sport and Exercise Science branded sports kit. This includes a polo top, t-shirt and a hooded sweatshirt and costs approximately £85.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £131 per week to 'En-suite Premium' at £221 per week (2024/25 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

Sports scholarships

At Worcester we are committed to supporting elite and talented sports performers who are dedicated to both sporting and academic success. Our sports scholarships are available for a range of team and individual sports. For further information, visit our sports scholarships pages.

Register your interest

Enter your details below and we will keep you up to date with useful information about studying at the University of Worcester.


How to apply

How to apply

Applying through UCAS

Sport and Exercise Science BSc (Hons) C600 BSc/SES

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

UCAS Code

C600

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

Dr Jennifer Joyce

Admissions tutor