Course Content
- Sport and Exercise Nutrition (part-time year 1)
The module aims to develop an understanding of the physiological and biochemical demands of participation in sport and exercise, and how these demands inform and influence nutritional requirements of individuals to optimise health, performance, and recovery. - Sports Nutrition – Athletic Populations (part-time year 1)
This module aims to enhance the student's ability to showcase detailed knowledge and application of key sports nutrition principles needed to support different athletic populations. Additionally, students will complete the UKAD Clean Sport Hub – Introduction to Clean Sport to develop a critical understanding of anti-doping and doping violations. - Applied Performance Nutrition (part-time year 1)
The aim of this module is to develop the practical skills and competencies required of a Sport & Exercise Nutritionist (SENr) through applied case studies and sports nutrition kitchen practical work to prepare students for working within the sport and exercise setting. - Applied Research Methods and Design (part-time year 2)
The aim of the module is to enable students to develop their research skills in order to apply principles of evidence-based practice, and design and carry out robust research projects. - Advancing Personal Skills and Practice in the Workplace (part-time year 2)
The module aims to equip students to critically evaluate their individual learning requirements in relation to a specified and justified area of practice that involves the requirement to resolve high level, complex, practice scenarios, and to structure an approach to their own learning to satisfy specified learning outcomes. - Further Advancing Personal Skills and Practice in the Workplace (part-time year 2)
Students complete this module after they have completed the Advancing Personal Skills and Practice in the Workplace module. The module adopts a similar approach and further advances practice by requiring students to develop an aspect or level of practice distinct from that previously undertaken. - Project and Career Planning (part-time year 3)
The aim of this module is to enable students to design and develop an advanced specialist project in their discipline to enhance their own and/or others’ learning, work, or practice, and to evaluate their own knowledge, skills, interests and ambitions to create their own personal career development plan. - Project (part-time year 3)
The aim of this module is to enable students to work independently to investigate an area in their discipline relevant to their own learning, work, or practice, and to present and discuss their findings, demonstrating a systematic understanding and critical awareness of their discipline and area of professional practice. We offer a broad range of project types including empirical research projects, enterprise/innovation projects (e.g., business planning or consultancy), or product/intervention design. Students can also complete the project as a placement/professional practice development project, focused on developing and demonstrating a specific set of professional knowledge, skills and competencies and their application in practice.
Learning & Teaching
This programme is delivered using blended learning, where each module is taught using a combination of online learning and 3-day teaching blocks at our Cyncoed and Llandaff campuses. These blocks will typically run from 9am to 6pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Students tell us they really value the flexibility of this approach enabling them to combine their studies alongside other commitments.
Preparatory work ahead of the campus teaching blocks, (for example, devising a Nutrition Assessment checklist for use with Athletes and Sportspeople, or a hydration protocol for a particular athlete/sporting event) will enable you to discuss and share learning with course colleagues and lecturers, and consolidate, expand, and apply your knowledge to real life situations.
To support your studies, fortnightly online touchpoint seminars will be available, and formative interactive quizzes, reflective questions and student forum/discussion board tasks used to help you evaluate your understanding of the lecture material.
A well-balanced mix of theory and practice is delivered via a range of teaching methods across the programme, including:
- Scheduled synchronous (‘live’) learning activities on-campus – e.g., lectures, seminars, workshops/practical sessions, facilitated group work, etc.
- Scheduled academic support – e.g., academic skills sessions, subject-based tutorials, assessment workshops, research supervision. These may be delivered on-campus or online depending on the requirements of the module and programme.
- Scheduled asynchronous learning activities that students complete in their own time – e.g., pre-recorded video mini-lectures, flipped learning activities, preparation tasks for seminars, etc.
A typical 20-credit taught module will have approximately 40-45 hours of associated scheduled teaching activities, in a combination of the above approaches. Alongside these scheduled activities, you’ll undertake your own independent learning – such as reading and research to prepare for seminars or assessments, unsupervised group work with fellow students, engaging with academic skills support, data collection for individual projects, etc.
We take full advantage of our excellent facilities during the campus teaching blocks. You will have lots of supervised experience devising meal plans in our consumer kitchen, fitness testing in our exercise physiology labs, consultation skills in our clinic rooms and anthropometrics practicals.
Assessment
Our programme and modules are designed to offer opportunities for formative tasks and feedback to help build confidence and develop your ability to evaluate your own progress. We use authentic assessment tasks which enable you to apply your knowledge and skills to scenarios, activities and settings commonly encountered in professional practice.
The programme includes a range of assessment methods, including:
- Presentations
- Written reports
- Client/scenario-based case studies
- Viva voce interviews
- Professional portfolios
- Practical assessments
To reflect the applied nature of your studies, the programme contains no unseen written examinations.
We carefully plan our assessment schedule to avoid excessive bunching of similar types of assessment, and realistic deadlines. Every assessment includes a detailed briefing and clearly defined marking criteria, which have been developed and tested in partnership with students.
Employability & Careers
The programme is closely aligned to professional standards and competencies, particularly the requirements for SENr registration. Vocational modules in professional practice enable students to work with selected sports teams, clubs and individuals to improve their performance with nutrition. This is undertaken in a flexible manner to fit with the interests and career aspirations of each individual student. All work is supervised closely by registered practitioners to ensure clear skills development within the SENr code of professional conduct.
The course has been designed to enable you to join the Sport and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENr), the professional register for qualified sports and exercise nutritionists. This is an important quality maker which recognises that your skills and knowledge have been benchmarked against those required in this competitive job market.
Some graduates will go onto work with elite sport but many will apply their skills to a wider range of individuals including amateur sport and promoting good nutrition to improve health in the wider population. There is a strong emphasis on transferable skills throughout the course, for example dietary assessment and consultation skills.
Our module assessments directly relate to future employment or work-related tasks, or more generally to the advancement of the subject and profession, and your own aspirations. This will enable you to develop and demonstrate the application of your knowledge and skills to real-world professional situations.
Career development planning & work-based learning opportunities
In the Project & Career Planning module, you will engage in reflective self-evaluation of your knowledge, skills, and experiences, benchmarking these against relevant disciplinary standards/competency frameworks. We’ll support you to evaluate your current strengths and prioritise areas for improvement relevant to your own career goals and ambitions.
In the Project module, you can elect to complete an industry placement/work-based learning project, focusing on developing your skills and competencies in a complex professional context. If you select this project you will need to obtain a suitable placement (minimum duration: 200 hours, maximum duration 6 months). We’ll support you to find and obtain an appropriate work-based learning experience using our network of industry contacts.
We cannot guarantee a placement opportunity for every student, and it is likely that many placement opportunities will involve some kind of competitive recruitment process.
Or you may prefer to select one of the other types of projects (e.g., empirical research, consultancy, enterprise/innovation, or product/intervention design project) and complete it in a work-based setting, working in partnership with an employer or other organisation. This might be your own organisation or workplace – a common approach taken by part-time students investigating a project aligned to their own professional practice.
Entry Requirements and How to Apply
Students are required to have BSc (Hons) degree in a subject which meets the biosciences requirement of the Sport and Exercise Nutrition register for degree level study in human physiology and biochemistry. Typically, this would include subjects such as:
- BSc (Hons) Nutrition
- BSc (Hons) Dietetics
- BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences
- BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science
- BSc (Hons) Biology
However, this is not an exhaustive list. If you hold a degree in a relevant subject and would like to discuss whether you meet the entry requirements for this programme, please contact the Programme Director using the contact details below.
International Applicants:
Students whose first language is not English will need to provide evidence of fluency to at least an academic IELTS 6.0 standard with no sub score lower than 5.5, or equivalent. For full details about how to apply and English Language qualifications please visit the
International pages on the website.
Selection Procedure:
Applicants are assessed against the eligibility criteria mentioned above through completion of an application form.
How to Apply:
Applications for this course should be made direct to the University via our
self-service facility. For further information please visit our How to Apply pages at
www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/howtoapply.
If you are interested in using credit from another institution, or have obtained qualifications and/or experience to study for a course at Cardiff Met, you can find further information on this as well as information on how to apply on the
RPL page.
Additional Information
Accredited by:
This course has been designed to meet the standards for professional Sports and Exercise Nutritionists as set by the Sports and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENr) professional body. We are applying for accreditation with the SENr during the 2024-25 academic year, and will know the outcome in July 2025. We have been advised by SENr that if accreditation is approved, that accreditation will apply to students already enrolled on the programme. Graduates from a SENr accredited postgraduate course are eligible for direct entry to the Sports and Exercise Nutrition Register
www.senr.org.uk/educationtraining/accredited-postgraduate-courses/
Tuition Fees and Financial Support:
For up to date information on tuition fees and the financial support that may be available. Please refer to
www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/fees.
Place of Study:
Blended learning – interactive distance learning and on campus 2-3 day teaching blocks at Cyncoed and Llandaff campuses
Part-time fees:
Part-time fees are charged per single module at the rate specified in the University’s published tuition fees for the relevant academic year. Most part-time students complete 60 credits per academic year.
If you require further guidance to obtain a true costing please clarify this by contacting the Programme Director directly.
Contact Us
For general enquiries please contact the Admissions Team on 029 2041 6044 or email
directapplications@cardiffmet.ac.uk
For course specific enquiries, please contact the Programme Director, Dr Karen Reid (kareid@cardiffmet.ac.uk) - Sport and Exercise Nutrition register (SENr), Practitioner registrant