Sport Policy, Management and International Development (MSc)

This innovative, full-time Masters programme critically examines the commercialised, media-oriented world of professional sport, as well as the increasingly important realm of community sport. It provides a critical understanding of the key concepts necessary to pursue a successful career across all sport sectors.

The programme is for recent graduates from any discipline who seek the specialist knowledge necessary to work in sport. We also welcome current sports practitioners who are keen to develop their knowledge and advance their careers. 

The programme provides in-depth analysis of policy, management and development issues across a range of countries and sport sectors. We focus on issues relevant to managing sports organisations, including: 

  • strategic, performance, human resource, change and risk management 
  • leadership 
  • organisational culture and behaviour
  • managing sport communications and understanding how mass media structures sport-management debates  

You’ll learn how to apply both generic and sport-specific theory to practice. We’ll encourage you to reflect on your practice so you can deliver efficient, effective sport interventions. You will learn a range of concepts drawn from sociology, management, political science, policy studies and organisational behaviour.

The programme studies fundamental aspects of research methods and links these to sport-management concerns. 

Apply now

Visit the University’s Degree Finder for detailed entry requirements, fees, international grade equivalency, language requirements and to apply.

What we offer

Key to the success of our programme has been our: 

  • commitment to research-led teaching
  • excellent levels of student support
  • curriculum specifically geared to the needs of home and international students
  • links to local, national, and international sport organisations, including the Homeless World Cup, World Mountain Biking Championships, Scottish Rugby Union and many more

What you will study

We recognise that sport managers operate in a highly politicised environment. The programme, therefore, reviews the role of government in shaping sporting opportunities. We also examine sport’s contribution to social policy agendas such as crime prevention, health improvement, educational attainment and community building, as well as its role in peace and reconciliation, leadership development, gender empowerment and disease prevention worldwide. 

Masters study at the University of Edinburgh

Masters degrees at the University of Edinburgh comprise 180 credits. The first 120 credits are made up of taught courses. Students who achieve an average mark of 50% or more can continue to the dissertation component which makes up the final 60 credits of the programme. Successfully completing all 180 credits leads to the MSc. 

You will take seven compulsory courses. These courses consist of a combination of lectures, seminars, case studies, potential industry visits and discussions. 

Successfully completing the taught courses enables you to progress to the dissertation. You must complete the dissertation to receive the MSc. To complete the dissertation, you also need to take one additional compulsory course, Research Methods: Planning Research. 

The dissertation is an independent research project. You may select your topic from a list supplied by staff or, with the help of staff, you can tailor it to your own research or career objectives. 

Examples of dissertation projects from previous years: 

  • Re-thinking community sports development through sport social enterprises: a case study of the Crags Community Sports Centre 
  • The mediated representation of female athletes: a case study of Yani Tseng 
  • An exploration of how sport communications present culture: examining Nike UK and Nike China 
  • Stakeholder perceptions of talent identification and development in Scottish sport 
  • Using sport to prevent teenage pregnancies: a case study of the Chattanooga Sport Ministries 
  • Comparing local football development systems in India and England 
  • The effect of outdoor fitness equipment on community sport development in Dalian (China) 
  • Creating an effective brand for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games 
  • The opportunities and challenges with social media: A case study of Adidas 

Lectures

You will attend approximately 10 lectures for each 20-credit course. These provide you with information on key debates around course issues. They also stimulate your knowledge and understanding, as well as your skills in research, listening and note-taking. 

Online resources such as videos, recommended reading lists and links to relevant materials such as articles support and inform the lectures.  These are posted onto each course’s online learning site. 

Seminars

We hold weekly, two-hour student-led seminars during which you can raise issues from the wider reading and clarify any queries with other students and staff. This allows you to learn from peers and develop your communication skills, knowledge and understanding, and personal and intellectual autonomy. 

By using case studies across a wide range of sport sectors, you will enhance your awareness and understanding of contemporary issues. You will also develop your autonomy and problem-solving skills. 

Visits and guest speakers

We invite local sport organisations and prominent sport practitioners to come and share their knowledge of key issues with our students. Many of these visits and presentations are tied into assessments. This applied aspect will enhance your knowledge and understanding and make you think about future opportunities for research and enquiry. 

Our staff’s research and our use of industry-based tutors encourages this process.  The tutors, when combined with assignments linked to the sport industry, ensure learning reflects sector concerns. 


Our assessment strategy uses several tools to deliver the programme’s aims and learning outcomes, to engage students, and to utilise approaches they may use in the workplace. 

We assess our students through:  

  • essays  
  • a management report  
  • a written communications strategy  
  • a policy brief  
  • oral presentations  
  • analysis of media texts  
  • a viva  
  • a poster presentation 
  • the research-based dissertation 

In a range of assignments, we encourage our students to examine sport organisations and issues from their own countries. 

These assignments allow students to learn independently and share their knowledge of the subject. They also allow us to assess students’ ability to address problems, construct arguments and critically analyse issues.  

Assessment feedback

Feedback is key to enhancing the student experience. We deliver it throughout the course in several ways. 

Staff give informal feedback on seminar discussions and email questions. We provide discussion feedback in one-to-one tutorials and/or in more informal sessions after lectures or seminars.  

Students also receive individual and general feedback on non-credit-bearing class assignments. They can use this feedback to inform their credited assignments. 

To help the current cohort succeed, staff also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of previous students’ assignments. Where two assignments make up the course, we provide feedback on the first in time to inform the next assignment.  

We give formal feedback in writing and discuss it with the student in a one-to-one meeting with the relevant course organiser. 


Graduates will:

  • be able to outline the key factors affecting sport participation in different countries and discuss how sport policy and management can improve it
  • understand sport’s role in mitigating social and economic problems at the local, national and international level
  • critically reflect on management theory’s contribution to efficient and effective sports management practice
  • identify and explain historical changes in sport policy and assess the role of these changes in modern-day practice
  • learn that a multidisciplinary approach is necessary to understand the complexities of today’s sport
  • develop the knowledge and skills to assess current research and others’ work and to carry out a research project of their own
  • understand the impact of socio-economic, political and cultural factors on sport policy, management and international development practice
  • learn about the varied nature of sport policy and management practice around the world
  • develop their research and academic skills, such as:
    • Using information technology
    • Independent study
    • Working with a team
    • Writing essays and reports
    • Presenting
  • combine theory and practice to create informed sport policy and management interventions
  • become independent learners with the skills required to identify and meet their career goals.

Graduates will be able to show:

  • a theoretically informed appreciation of the role and impact of governments on sport policy
  • an understanding of the role of the mass media in framing modern-day sport policy and management
  • in-depth knowledge of the opportunities and challenges facing sport providers across diverse sectors
  • a firm grasp of how different academic disciplines (e.g., sociology, political science, management, policy studies, cultural studies, history and geography) help form an understanding of sport policy, management and international development.

Support for your studies

You will have access to a range of support services if you need them throughout your degree.

We will assign you to a Student Advisor in your first few weeks at Edinburgh. This should be the first person to contact if you need help. They can guide you to other University service teams depending on what support you need.

Support for your studies

Teaching informed by the latest research

You will be based in the Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences (ISPEHS) where our staff are undertaking research in diverse areas, including: 

  • sport, poverty and homelessness 
  • sporting legacies from mega and major sport events 
  • sport and militarism 
  • the politics of North and South Korean sport 
  • leisure-based physical activity interventions 
  • sport media and communication 
  • the politics of sport stadium protests 
  • strategic sport management 
  • gender equity in and through sport 

This research informs our teaching, so you will benefit from cutting-edge knowledge and expertise. 

Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences

This course gave me an opportunity to think critically and engage with concepts that were valuable to other courses. [The course organiser's] detailed responses to final course assessment was very helpful; I will be able to employ the recommendations to improve performance in future assessments.

Research groups and networks

Our programme is affiliated with multiple research groups and centres of education and research, including:

These groups promote our commitment to research and research-led teaching.  

The groups were formed in conjunction with internationally renowned researchers across the UK, Asia and North America. Members include international journal editors and reviewers and nationally and internationally recognised commentators. We regularly speak at national and international events and write media articles on sport. 

Facilities

Students have access to the Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences’ excellent facilities, which include a dance studio, games halls, strength and conditioning performance gym, and labs for studying biomechanics, physiology, psychology, and environmental and human performance.

Learn more about the facilities available at Moray House

The University is ranked among the best in the world for its sport and exercise facilities. Students can participate in any of the more than 60 sport societies on offer, including fencing, skydiving, horse riding, ice hockey, rugby and rock climbing. 

Sport and Exercise at the University of Edinburgh

The sporting environment was friendly and inclusive on campus. I really enjoyed my experiences in both curling and the tennis club.

Junru Li Programme graduate

Careers

Our programme prepares you for a career in the sports industry, which covers such diverse areas as:

  • sport-specific development officers working for local government or sport-governing bodies
  • Sport for Development officers whose work links sport to wider social policy concerns
  • sports marketing and sponsorship
  • organising sports events
  • managing sport clubs
  • commercial sector health and fitness
  • sport retail
  • sport tourism
  • developing sport in schools and universities
  • sports management for local governments
  • media and public relations
  • sport for international development

The University of Edinburgh's Careers Service supports all current students (and graduates for up to 2 years) to develop their potential and achieve satisfying and rewarding futures.

Join in and make use of:

  • individual appointments
  • group sessions
  • wider campus-based activity
  • online services and resources

We also deliver a diverse programme of face-to-face and online events throughout the academic year.

Visit the Careers Service website


Our students

Our students come from all over the world with previous experience in all aspects of the sports industry. You'll join an international community at a world-class University with a reputation for top performance in sport and research.

Nalin Chaturvedi

video

'I am working with the Athlete365 team at the International Olympic Committee. […] The platform looks to provide aspiring Olympians or current Olympians with a range of resources.'

Junru Li

MH-SPMID-Junru-Li

'I would recommend this programme not only because it gives a comprehensive theoretical understanding of the role of sport in the society, but also because you can make friends with other students from all over the world. Moreover, the lecturers are all brilliant.'

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees are listed on the Postgraduate Study Programme Fees pages related to your desired exit level and duration of study.

MSc Sport Policy, Management and International Development - 1 Year (Full-time)


Scholarship opportunities are subject to change each year. We are pleased to offer a number of School-specific scholarships, but students are encouraged to seek out opportunities from the University and external funding bodies.

More information about available scholarships and funding can be found on our Scholarships and Studentships page.

Scholarships and studentships


Contact us

Questions about the programme

For programme-specific enquiries, contact the Programme Director.

Dr Louis Nolte

Programme Director (Sport Policy, Management and International Development)

  • Moray House School of Education and Sport

Contact details

Questions about your application or how to apply

For enquiries about your application or how to apply, contact the Postgraduate Admissions office.

Postgraduate Admissions Office (Education)

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (CAHSS)

Contact details

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