Overview
If you’re passionate about sport coaching and want to have an impact on future generations, the knowledge understanding you’ll develop on our MSc Sport Coaching course will prepare you for a rewarding career. You’ll work on interdisciplinary solutions and enhance your employability power with skills relevant across participation and performance sport settings.
Careers
You could enter a career in broad multidisciplinary areas of professional sport coaching. Depending on the focus of your research or work placement you could take up a range of applied roles with Sporting National Governing Bodies (NGBs) at performance or participation level. With our MSc in Sport Coaching course you’re in the perfect position to develop a number of postgraduate transferable skills valued by employers from different industries. Additionally, you could continue your academic career with our Sport and Exercise Sciences PhD or Professional Doctorates.
Modules & assessment
Core modules
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Advanced Coaching Concepts
Coaching is a vital element for success in sport at all levels. Here you’ll build on your understanding to develop advanced knowledge of key concepts that support sport coaching research and practice. Looking at current reviews in areas like coaching behaviour, learning, educational professional development, coaching contexts and micropolitics, you will be encouraged to discuss and critically assess them, making connections with the possible implications for research and/or practice. You’ll also be introduced to the design and planning of ethical research and applied projects to address these issues and differences. -
Contemporary Issues and Communication in Sport and Exercise
Discover the wider issues currently affecting researchers and practitioners in sport. Professionals working in the sporting landscape need to communicate complex, sometimes contentious issues to a variety of specialist and non-specialist audiences from athletes to parents, National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to stakeholders and decision makers, as well as the public. Being able to understand and effectively communicate potential problems or issues faced by sport science and coaching practitioners in the modern sporting environment will help you to be proactive in managing and dealing with problematic issues in a professional manner. In an environment where ‘knowledge’ is questionable in quality and readily available to non-specialists, you’ll learn about different sources of information and communication, and how these can feed into problem solving and practice in the real world. Looking at these contemporary issues in the wider sporting industry as well as completing a skills audit and action plan will help you to map your journey in to the sport and exercise profession, and identify your longer-term career aspirations. -
Essential Research Methods
The module provides a theoretical framework of research methods for postgraduate students. It will encourage you to develop an increasingly autonomous and critical approach to research. You will be challenged to develop your research philosophy, consider the impact research can have on society and effectively analyse data using a range of advanced techniques relevant in sport and exercise sciences and psychology research. The module content will develop your critical understanding of the principles of data collection and analysis using various higher-level methods. You'll become critical researchers, be able to draw conclusions using multiple sets of data, effectively compare and contrast data and use literature to support ideas and/or theories. The module will be driven using real-world research questions, with example datasets provided to facilitate understanding of statistics and qualitative analysis. The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures, practical sessions and online tasks. It will equip you with a wide range of highly useful and transferable research and analytical skills (eg, numerical skills, use of research software, experimental design, presentations), which are highly relevant in the research and employment environment. -
Interdisciplinary Working in Sport and Exercise
Investigate and answer real-world problems using interdisciplinary team work. This module aims at progressing your knowledge and understanding of integrated working across the broad area of sport, including exercise, health and wellbeing, and business sectors. You’ll gain an insight of how different professional disciplines or agencies work in an integrated manner to solve a variety of issues as well as the management of diverse teams, consideration of professional boundaries, individual vs team roles, cultural tradition and overlapping of skills. You’ll be required to work in diverse discipline groups to create a proposal on how you could solve a problem based in the area of sport, health, and exercise. You’ll then work to achieve this by transferring knowledge between disciplines and defend your choices of recommendations to a panel of academics, businesses and industry partners. Explore the benefits and challenges through lectures with guest speakers from a variety of sectors, providing an insight into their work. This module is invaluable learning if you want to develop an understanding of working in the applied field of sport and exercise science, and coaching.
Optional modules (subject to availability)
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Research Project
Choose your field of study, develop your research strategy and present your final results in a thesis prepared to the highest scientific and/or professional standard. Draw on the knowledge you have gained from your studies to follow your thesis through, based on a topic taken from a series of themes related to the interests of the Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences team. You’ll be assigned a supervisor or, if appropriate, a supervisory team, who you’ll need to make regular reports to on the state and progress of your work. -
Work-Based Major Project
You can opt to complete your final module whilst you work. We understand that the work environment provides a rich setting for exploration and discovery of a range of knowledge, skills and understanding. You’ll have the opportunity to develop your practice based learning and experience, relate theory to practice, to develop skills and experiences linked to employability. With the approval of your supervisor, you’ll research, secure, engage and undertake your work-based project based in a relevant industry or company in the broad area of Sport Coaching. You’ll be expected to demonstrate an awareness of current professional practice, legal, ethical and cultural issues relevant to your practice and studies. You’ll have a number of face-to-face sessions on preparing for and evaluating work experience, researching career opportunities, and on the development of interpersonal skills. You’ll need to reflect on this work experience critically, linking to theoretical concepts covered in your specific course, as well as reflect on the week to week experiences in the work place. You’ll be expected to be able to demonstrate information gathering and descriptive skills and also higher order critical evaluative or analytical skills.
Assessment
Throughout the course, we’ll use a range of assessment methods to help you learn and judge your progress. These include written reports, essays, proposals, reflective accounts, a patchwork portfolio of seminar tasks, audits and presentations.
Where you'll study
Your faculty
The Faculty of Science & Engineering is one of the largest of the four faculties at Anglia Ruskin University. Whether you choose to study with us full-time or part-time, on campus or at a distance, there’s an option whatever your level – from a foundation degree, BSc, MSc, PhD or professional doctorate.
Whichever course you pick, you’ll gain the theory and practical skills needed to progress with confidence. Join us and you could find yourself learning in the very latest laboratories or on field trips or work placements with well-known and respected companies. You may even have the opportunity to study abroad.
Everything we do in the faculty has a singular purpose: to provide a world-class environment to create, share and advance knowledge in science, technology and engineering fields. This is key to all of our futures.
Where can I study?
Cambridge
Our campus is close to the centre of Cambridge, often described as the perfect student city.
Fees & funding
Course fees
UK students starting 2021/22 (per year)
£9,200
UK students starting 2021/22 (part-time, per year)
£4,600
International students starting 2021/22 (per year)
£13,900
International students starting 2021/22 (part-time, per year)
£4,633
Important fee notes
The part-time course fee assumes that you're studying at half the rate of a full-time student (50% intensity). Course fees will be different if you study over a longer period. All fees are for guidance purposes only.
Additional fees
Students may want to access conferences or CPD opportunities which may be highlighted by the course. These will be an additional cost (approx. £400).
How do I pay my fees?
Tuition fee loan
UK students can take out a tuition fee loan, which you won’t need to start repaying until after your graduate. Or there's the option to pay your fees upfront.
International students
You can pay your tuition fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will also ask you for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter. Details will be in your offer letter.
Paying your feesScholarships
We offer a fantastic range of ARU scholarships, which provide extra financial support while you’re at university. Some of these cover all or part of your tuition fees.
Funding for postgraduate students
It’s important to decide how to fund your course before applying. Use our finance guide for postgraduate students to learn more about postgraduate loans and other funding options.
We offer a fantastic range of ARU scholarships and bursaries, which provide extra financial support while you're at university.
International students
As well as a number of scholarships, we offer an early payment discount. Explore your options:
Entry requirements
Important additional notes
Whether you're studying entirely online or through a blend of face-to-face and online learning in September 2021, you'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course. Before starting the course, we recommend that you check our technical requirements for online learning. Our website also has general information for new students about starting university in 2021-22.
Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements. Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course, please email answers@aru.ac.uk for further information.
When applying you’ll need to select a research topic from one of our areas of research expertise. To find out more about the areas we can supervise for your research project download our MSc Sport Coaching research areas PDF below.
MSc Sport Coaching research areas PDF
The selection of a research topic as part of the application process is important. We encourage you to contact the academic associated with the topic area directly before submitting your application, for more information and to confirm they will be able to support you.
Teaching options
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our students can choose to study face to face on campus or online only. They're also able to change their mode of delivery on given dates in each trimester.
For on-campus teaching, we offer at least four hours face-to-face teaching related contact time per week for our undergraduate full-time courses, supported by online learning using our established online learning systems. The number of contact hours varies course by course, and you can contact us for further information. The provision offered is subject to change due to the possibility of further Government restrictions, however we remain committed to delivering face-to-face teaching and ensuring a safe and inclusive environment.
In the event that there are further changes to the current restrictions that are in place due to the pandemic, we may need to move some courses online only at short notice to remain in line with Government guidelines and ensure the continued safety of our students and staff.
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