Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences>Courses>Sport & Exercise Science - BSc (Hons) Degree

Sport & Exercise Science - BSc (Hons) Degree

Entry Year

The BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science degree at Cardiff Met is endorsed by the industry's professional body, the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences [BASES] and focuses on the scientific basis of performance in sport and participation in physical activity and exercise. To fulfil BASES requirements, you will follow a dedicated pathway throughout the three levels that focuses on gaining an understanding of the core sport and exercise disciplines of physiology, biomechanics and psychology as well as exploring the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary aspects of Sport and Exercise Science with a high level of vocational relevance and experience.

As part of studying on the Sport and Exercise Science degree, you can also develop your knowledge and skills in an additional option theme of study based on either strength and conditioning, sports nutrition or exercise referral and fitness instruction with the opportunity to achieve additional vocational qualifications.

Throughout this Sport and Exercise Science degree you will gain practical experiences of laboratory-based activities as well as gaining opportunities to observe and be involved in applied practice. You will be afforded many opportunities to develop your practical contextual knowledge and skills in sport and exercise science, fitness testing, coaching, exercise prescription and performance settings.​

​Foundation Year

​​This degree can be studied as a three-year full-time degree or a four-year full-time degree that includes a year of foundational study. Our foundation year is intended to prepare you for your subsequent years of studying, offering you the chance to strengthen your skills, knowledge and confidence.

The foundation year will be relevant to​:

  1. Students who aspire to enrol onto the first year of a science-based honours degree programme within the Cardiff School of Health Sciences, who have not achieved the standard entry requirements to enter at year one of the chosen degree.
  2. Students who have not studied subjects that provide the necessary background within the scientific disciplines required to enter at year one of the chosen degree.


Find out more about the foundation year​​.

Please note: You will need to apply using a specific UCAS code if you wish to undertake the 4 years including foundation. Please refer to Key Course Information at the bottom of this page.

​​Course Content​

The Sport and Exercise Science programme is built around two main pillars. Firstly, ensuring students are knowledgeable in the underpinning scientific disciplines of physiology, biomechanics and psychology and secondly, how knowledge and skills in these disciplines can be applied to the sport and exercise context.

Each discipline is introduced in year 1 and this is built on in year 2 with compulsory modules that ensure a breadth of knowledge and understanding along with an appreciation of how the disciplines can combine to address sport and exercise-related problems. The final year of study enables you to focus on one or two of these disciplines ensuring that you develop advanced knowledge and application in a field that aligns to your future career aspirations.

Additionally, the Sport and Exercise Science programme explores the continuum from competitive sport through to exercise and physical activity. This will help you gain an appreciation of the different motivators for sport and exercise as well as the different training demands and responses and the different roles sport and exercise play within different populations. Years 1 and 2 introduce these different contexts from a disciplinary perspective with a final year option to focus on sport or exercise as a main theme.

In addition to the main disciplinary modules you will also undertake modules to facilitate your transition into studying at university level, develop your critical research and science skills, investigate other disciplines allied to sport and exercise science (e.g. sports nutrition, strength and conditioning and exercise referral) as well as having opportunities to gain recognised vocational and professional industry relevant qualifications.

You will able to undertake a major project in your chosen field of study alongside your chosen subject-specific content. The final year focuses upon developing you as an independent, driven learner that can take control of your learning and ensure that this aligns with your first step into graduate employment or further study. Mentoring is a significant part of the final year of study to allow individualised support in the development of your skills as an academic and practitioner within the fields aligned to sport and exercise science.

Year One

  • Research and Scholarship*
  • Professional Development
  • Biomechanics of Human Movement
  • Fundamentals of Sport and Exercise Physiology
  • Fundamentals of Sport and Exercise Psychology
  • Subjects Allied to Sport and Exercise Science


Year Two

Core modules:

  • Research Design and Practice*
  • Issues in Sport and Exercise Science
  • Sport and Exercise Biomechanics
  • Sport and Exercise Physiology
  • Sport and Exercise Psychology

Options:

  • Nutrition*
  • Fundamentals of Strength and Conditioning for SES


Year Three

Core modules:

  • Final Project*
  • Interdisciplinary Sport and Exercise Science

Option modules:

  • Sport Biomechanics
  • Health and Rehabilitation Biomechanics
  • Physiology of Sport Performance
  • Exercise Physiology of Health
  • Sports Psychology
  • Exercise Psychology
  • Sport and Exercise Nutrition*
  • Strength and Conditioning for SES

*modules available through the medium of Welsh

Learning & Teaching

Effective learning, teaching and assessment methods underpin the educational aims and the learning outcomes of all of our programmes and modules. Learning and teaching methods within the sport and exercise science programme may include lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, laboratory-based practical sessions, guest speakers and industrial visits. Our Virtual Learning Environment is also an integral aspect of the learning package that supports the needs of our students.

Lead lectures introduce key topics and concepts, whilst seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical laboratory sessions focus on the application of key concepts with the aim of enhancing the student experience and engagement. You will also meet tutors on a one to one basis. As a school, we work hard to provide student-centred learning opportunities that deliver a high quality and flexible learning environment.

Learning and teaching methods emphasise and facilitate the development of your critical reasoning, and encourage the integration of practice and theory. Throughout your programme, you will experience both tutor-led learning and self-directed methods of learning, increasing independence and reflection and encouraging you to develop a positive attitude toward lifelong learning.

Our teaching and learning methods embed the Cardiff Met 'EDGE' (Ethical, Global, Digital and Entrepreneurial) skills and you will be well equipped to demonstrate graduate attributes expected of you in an increasingly competitive world of work. We aim to help you to develop into scientists, reflective professionals and critical scholars.

In your sport programme at Cardiff Met, you will encounter a learning experience from induction to graduation that is coherent and develops your identity within your programme of study.

Specific features of the learning experience of the learning experience on Sport and Exercise Science include:

  • Internationally renowned researchers that are integral to the learning package offered to our students.
  • World-class sport and exercise science laboratory facilities and equipment to enhance the student learning experience.
  • All aspects of Learning and Teaching utilise the most recent research literature and professional standards (e.g., BASES, CIMSPA, REPS). Widely recognised as an applied sport and exercise science degree and endorsed by BASES, the professional body for sport and exercise science.​

Assessment

The assessment strategies for each module vary to ensure that most appropriate method is implemented for your area of study. Modes of assessment are designed to both enhance your learning experience and to acknowledge that you have fulfilled the learning outcomes linked to each module. Assessment also ensures that you have achieved the standard required to progress to the next stage or to qualify for an award (as articulated by the FHEQ and CQFW). Assessments support your learning experience by providing opportunities for you to engage in formative and summative assessments to test your knowledge, ability, skill, and critical understanding. The undergraduate modules are assessed by a combination of assessment types. For example:

  • written coursework
  • poster presentations
  • oral presentations
  • portfolios
  • seen and unseen exams
  • practical skills
  • other activities designed to assess, develop, and enhance academic and employability skills.


You will be expected to complete a final project as part of the assessment of your honours degree. Final projects are major pieces of work that may be a research, innovation, consultancy or community project.

The nature of the sport and exercise science programme requires students to demonstrate both theoretical (evidence-based practice and critical thinking) and applied (practical, intervention development and referral skills), and therefore assessments within sport and exercise science modules include both theoretical assessments and practical assessments in applied settings.

Employability & Careers

The Sport and Exercise Science programme seeks to develop your employability from three perspectives. Firstly, as a graduate with a high standard of graduate skills developed through the Cardiff Met EDGE philosophy which supports you to thrive in the modern world. Throughout your degree you will experience a range of opportunities to develop your ethical, digital, global and entrepreneurial competencies through problem-based learning, real-world industry case studies and practical work experiences on-, and where appropriate, off-campus. Throughout your time at Cardiff Met we will ensure that you get a range of opportunities to develop transferable graduate skills such as communication, team work and leadership. Secondly, to develop you as a scientist, you will be encouraged to think and write critically; frame and present a reasoned argument; collect, collate, analyse and interpret data; and design, implement and evaluate an evidence-based intervention or programme. Finally, you will develop the necessary subject-expertise to become an effective sport and exercise science practitioner in your chosen field.

During your first year of study you will get the opportunity to undertake a technical qualification in fitness training and explore a range of industry relevant areas including sport coaching, exercise referral, safeguarding and doping​. These opportunities will ensure that you have the appropriate qualifications and experience to prepare you for many work opportunities after graduation. We will also support you to seek opportunities to work or study abroad. Students who have graduated from the Sport and Exercise Science programme have gone on to work in careers both within and beyond the sport and exercise Industries.

Recent graduates from sport and exercise science are now working with professional sports teams, academy sports teams as well as with national governing bodies of sport. Many students also pursue opportunities in private practice, clinical environments or in the military, emergency services and fitness industry settings. Other students have continued onto further Master’s level study in the field of sport and exercise science or related disciplines such as sports nutrition, sports performance analysis, physiotherapy or strength and conditioning. Others have then further progressed to doctoral level studies towards careers as researchers or academics.

Entry Requirements​ & How to Apply

Typical Offers

​The following requirements are based on typical offers relevant to entering year 1 of the degree.

If you do not meet these entry requirements, we also offer a Foundation Year​ which allows progression to Year 1 upon successful completion.

  • Tariff points: 120-128
  • Contextual offer: See our contextual offers page.
  • GCSE: Five GCSEs at Grade C / 4 or above to include English Language / Welsh First Language, Mathematics / Mathematics – Numeracy and Science.
  • English Language Requirement: Academic IELTS 6.0 overall with at least 5.5 in all elements, or equivalent.
  • A level subjects: Three A levels. Grades BB to include Science​.
  • Relevant subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, PE/Sport Studies, Psychology, Mathematics or Social Biology considered as the equivalent Science. Welsh Baccalaureate – Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate considered as a third subject.
  • BTEC National / Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma: DMM - DDM in Science or PE.
  • T Level: Distinction in a Science subject.
  • Access to Higher Education Diploma: 15 Level 3 credits at Distinction and 30 credits at Merit.
  • International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: 1 Higher Level Grade 6 and 1 Higher Level Grade 5. H6 in Science.
  • Irish Leaving Certificate: 3 H2 to include Science. Higher level subjects only considered with a minimum grade H4.
  • Scottish Advanced Highers: Grades CC to include C grade in Science. Scottish Highers are also considered, either on their own or in combination with Advanced Highers.

Combinations of the above qualifications are accepted if they meet our minimum requirements. If your qualifications aren’t listed, please contact Admissions or refer to the UCAS Course Search.

Further information on Overseas qualifications can be found here.

If you are a mature applicant, have relevant experience or RPL that you would like us to consider, please contact Admissions.


How to Apply

Further information on how to apply can be found here.

Contact Us

For general enquiries please contact the Admissions Team on 029 2041 6044 or email askadmissions@cardiffmet.ac.uk.

For course specific enquiries, please contact the Programme Support Team:
Email: CSSHSLTSE@cardiffmet.ac.uk

We endeavour to deliver courses as described and will not normally make changes to courses, such as course title, content, delivery, and teaching provision. However, it may be necessary for the university to make changes in the course provision before or after enrolment. It reserves the right to make variations to content or delivery methods, including discontinuation or merging courses if such action is considered necessary. Please read our Terms and Conditions for the full information.

Key Course Information

UCAS Codes:
C600 - 3-year degree
C60F - 4-year degree (including foundation year)​

​​Endorsed by:
The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences

Place of Study:
Cyncoed Campus

School:
Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences

Course Length:
Three years full-time or four years full-time including Foundation year.

Also available part-time and can be up to eight years. The part-time students join the full-time students for all modules. Therefore most of the modules are completed between 9.00am and 6.00pm on weekdays.

Part-time fees:
Charges are per single module unless specified: undergraduate = 10 credits. Please contact the programme leader for further information on modules to be studied part-time and how this will affect fees.

COURSE OVERVIEW | DEGREE HIGHLIGHTS
Degree Highlights

In this short introduction video, lecturer Rachel Lord tells us more about the degree in Sport & Exercise Science.

MEET THE TEAM
John Fernandes

“I undertook a Sport and Exercise Sciences degree because I was (and am!) really interested in sport performance. During my degree I interned at lots of sport teams and enjoyed so much about my studies but ultimately it was research that took my interest. So, after my degree I completed my PhD which was investigating recovery from exercise in older athletes (i.e. do those feelings of soreness after exercise get worse as you got older). Whilst doing this I began to lecture and found my real passion. I loved passing on knowledge to students, interacting in practicals and most of all seeing students develop. Catching up with students at graduation really is one of the perks of the job! On top of that I get to research into cool things and work with staff and student who are passionate about what they do. I sit on the key equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) groups, including the BASES EDI committee. So essentially another key part of what I do in trying to make sport, exercise and academia fairer. I’m confident that my experience can help make industry ready graduates!”

John Fernandes
Academic Team Lead

Meet the Team: Mike Stembridge

Meet Dr Mike Stembridge, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Physiology at Cardiff Met, who shares his experience and passion for the subject.

Meet the Team: Rachel Lord

Meet lecturer on the Sport & Exercise Science degree, Rachel Lord, who shares her expertise and passion for the subject.

SPORT & EXERCISE SCIENCE FACILITIES

On our Sport & Exercise Science degree you'll be taught in high level facilities and be able use equipment that's used in research and practice. This includes equipment that allows the assessments of maximal oxygen uptake, running gait, eye tracking during sporting tasks, blood lactate, cardiac screening and much more!

Sport Facilities

The University continues to invest in its world-class sporting facilities at the Cyncoed campus to enhance the performance and academic development of all our students.

 
STUDENT & GRADUATE EXPERIENCE

“My experience here at Cardiff Met has been amazing. I love the sporting atmosphere and the supportive community we have on Cyncoed Campus. The sports facilities are really good and most importantly for me, the hockey. I applied for Sport and Exercise Science here at Cardiff Met because I enjoy learning about biomechanics, sports psychology, and physiology. I hope to study further in Sports Psychology as that it interests me the most.”

Sophie Herbert
Level 4 Sport and Exercise Science

“I am enjoying studying Sport and Exercise Science (SES) at Cardiff Met because of how broad the course is and it lends itself to my future career aspirations. Psychology, Biomechanics and Physiology are the three disciplines that underpin SES, enabling us as students to develop our understanding and knowledge in a variety of topic areas. Having an ongoing interest in sport, this course has allowed me to expand my knowledge and passion for working within this industry in the future. The course itself is very interactive, from online content to feedback forms, the lectures are all keen to develop a trusting relationship with each and every student, making it feel like you’re all in this degree together.”

Erin Hughes
Sport & Exercise Science Student Ambassador

Blog
Developing professional and personal skills with Sport & Exercise Science at Cardiff Met

Final year student, Nia has been able to develop her professional and personal skills whilst studying at Cardiff Met, from Student Ambassador to BASES rep and playing for BUCS.
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Blog
Learning to promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity matters within Sport and Exercise Science

Hear how Nia worked with academics to enhance the awareness of EDI within Sport and Exercise Science.
Read more

Blog
My Cardiff Met experience graduating with a first-class honours in Sport and Exercise Science

From placement opportunities to focusing on specialist areas of interest, read more about India's Sport and Exercise Science experience.
Read more