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Overview
If you want an international career working for sporting governing bodies, or delivering events such as the Olympics, Wimbledon, Premier League football, the Indian Premier League, or other elite or mass participation global sporting events, then taking our Master's qualification in sport management will give you the valuable expertise and skills needed to lead, plan and deliver results in the growing sport management industry.
Sports science at the University of Portsmouth is ranked 3rd of all post-1992 universities for research quality
Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
The UK is Europe’s leading market for sport and sports tech with sport and physical activity contributing £39 billion to the UK’s economy. The global sports market is expected to reach $707.84 billion in 2026. The UK’s globally renowned sporting events provide many career opportunities. For example, the Premier League is the most watched football league in the world, with matches broadcast to 1 billion homes in 188 countries.
On this MSc Sport Management degree course you'll learn the theory and practice of sport management, build on your knowledge and understanding, and develop your leadership skills within an international sport management context.
Once you graduate, you'll have the transferable tools and skills needed for an international career in sport management, HR and event management.
Eligibility
This course accepts UK, EU, and International students.
Course highlights
- Develop the skills in people management and leadership needed for a successful international career in elite global sport
- Study the worldwide sports business industry, and the principles, practice and governance in management
- Learn from our research with internationally recognised sports organisations such as UEFA, the Rugby Football League (RFL) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
- Enjoy access to our outstanding new Ravelin Sports Centre, designed to be one of the UK’s most sustainable sports facilities
- Learn from lecturers who have delivered sport management programmes internationally and who are driven by current practices
- Explore employability and work experience opportunities during your time in Portsmouth
Number 1 in the UK for student support
Our sport and exercise sciences courses are ranked first in the UK for student support in the 2024 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)
Contact information
Contact AdmissionsEntry requirements
Eligibility
This course accepts UK, EU, and International students.
September 2025 / January 2026 start
- A second-class honours degree in a Sport, Business or Management subject. Applicants who hold a non-related degree will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For those who do not hold a degree or relevant professional qualification, extensive experience together with evidence of scholarly ability will be required.
Please get in touch if you're not sure if your undergraduate subject is relevant to this degree.
Equivalent professional experience and/or qualifications will also be considered, such as previous study, employment, voluntary work and training courses, including courses and qualifications you didn't complete. Learn more about our Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).
If you're applying as an international student with a non-UK degree, you’ll need to show you meet the UK entry requirements listed above.
To find out if your non-UK degree or other qualification is accepted, please visit our page for your country and view the UK equivalent of your qualification.
- English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.5 with no component score below 5.5.
You do not need an IELTS or equivalent certification if:
- you have a UK degree
- you have a degree from a majority English speaking country (not taught by Distance Learning)
- you are a national of a majority English speaking country
Degrees taught solely in English from non-majority English speaking countries will be considered on a case by case basis. Find out more about our English language requirements.
If you do not meet the English language requirements yet, you can achieve the level you need by successfully completing a pre-sessional English programme before you start your course.
Course costs and funding
Tuition fees (September 2025 / January 2026 start)
- Full-time: £10,900
- Part-time: £3,630 in year 1, £7,270 in year 2
(including Transition Scholarship)
- Full-time: £10,900
- Part-time: £3,630 in year 1, £7,270 in year 2
- Full-time: £17,200
- Part-time: £5,730 in year 1, £11,470 in year 2
University of Portsmouth graduates may receive a 20% alumni tuition fee discount.
Fees are subject to annual increase. Read our tuition fees terms and conditions.
You'll be able to pay your fees in instalments. Find out how to pay your tuition fees.
Funding your studies
Explore how to fund your studies, including available scholarships and bursaries.
If you're a UK student, you may be eligible for a Government Postgraduate Master's Loan, which you can use to help with course fees and living costs.
Sport scholarships of up to £3,000 for student athletes
If you're competing at national standard or above in your sport, you may be eligible for funding. Around 20 student-athletes are awarded bursaries between £500 and £3000 per year.
Loans, scholarships and bursaries
Browse funding such as the Government Postgraduate Loan, our scholarships for new and returning students, and subject specific loans.
Funding for international students
Learn more about sponsorships, scholarships and loans for students applying from outside of the UK.
Fees and funding for Master's courses
Explore Master's funding options, including loans, scholarships, bursaries and more.
Additional costs
These course-related costs aren't included in the tuition fees, so you'll need to budget for them when you plan your spending. Additional costs could include:
- Accommodation: Accommodation options and costs can be found on our accommodation pages.
- Recommended reading: You can borrow key texts from the library and if you choose to purchase these texts they may cost up to £60 each.
- General costs: Such as photocopying, memory sticks, printing charges, binding and specialist printing. We suggest budgeting £75 per year.
- Final project transport or accommodation: where necessary, which related to your research activities. The amount will depend on the project you choose.
Read more about tuition fees and living costs, including what your tuition fees cover.
Modules
Full-time
All modules on this MSc Sport Management are core.
You’ll explore research, critical thinking and present-day challenges in sport management. Drawing on case studies at local, national and global levels, you'll understand how current issues affect the sports industry and what they mean for the wider sporting landscape. Delve into topics such as commercialisation, politics and governance, gender equity and corporate social responsibility. You’ll form your own opinions on these complex issues and lead constructive discussions. By the end, you’ll have an agile mindset attuned to the evolving sports landscape, equipped with the awareness and skills to navigate real-world complexities in sports management.
Enhance your ability to analyse numerical data by delving into financial ratios, enabling you to accurately gauge the financial health of professional organisations, leagues, and competitions. Acquire the ability to propose marketing strategies for broadcasting and media rights in professional team sports, while enhancing analytical skills and exploring varied pricing and investment assessment methods.
Using sport event examples, you'll analyse both the global complexity and local scale of sports event management, applying theory to practice. Through assessments, you'll create innovative ideas and communicate these clearly in a variety of ways. Evaluate the post-event impacts of sport events through modern practice and research skills preparing you to confidentally manage global sporting events.
Examine the difficulties that modern sports organisations face regarding culture and workforce across various sectors, including issues like recruitment and retention. Evaluate how well human resource tools can track the impact of demographic, social, global and technological shifts on organisational practices and human resource strategies in the sports industry. Through discussion and case studies, you’ll develop your research skills and explore how the sports industry uses human resource within a global context. Analyse ideas and theories about equality and develop the skills to apply them effectively in the management of human resources within the workplace.
Learn social and psychosocial techniques for offering advice and guidance to potential clients. Through practical exercises, you'll develop skills in market analysis, including gathering and organising complex data, enabling you to contribute effectively as part of a research team. You'll deliver a professional presentation, showing your expert ability to present complex information to an informed audience.
As part of your proposal, you'll generate ideas and solutions that focus on sporting society. Through lectures, seminars, workshops, group work and case studies, you'll develop intellectual curiosity, embrace challenges and explore theoretical concepts. You'll gain a critical understanding of sports management and the ability to question principles, practice and boundaries in a range of environments – using your awareness of evolving research principles.
Part-time
All modules on this MSc Sport Management are core.
Enhance your ability to analyse numerical data by delving into financial ratios, enabling you to accurately gauge the financial health of professional organisations, leagues, and competitions. Acquire the ability to propose marketing strategies for broadcasting and media rights in professional team sports, while enhancing analytical skills and exploring varied pricing and investment assessment methods.
Learn social and psychosocial techniques for offering advice and guidance to potential clients. Through practical exercises, you'll develop skills in market analysis, including gathering and organising complex data, enabling you to contribute effectively as part of a research team. You'll deliver a professional presentation, showing your expert ability to present complex information to an informed audience.
As part of your proposal, you'll generate ideas and solutions that focus on sporting society. Through lectures, seminars, workshops, group work and case studies, you'll develop intellectual curiosity, embrace challenges and explore theoretical concepts. You'll gain a critical understanding of sports management and the ability to question principles, practice and boundaries in a range of environments – using your awareness of evolving research principles.
All modules on this MSc Sport Management are core.
You’ll explore research, critical thinking and present-day challenges in sport management. Drawing on case studies at local, national and global levels, you'll understand how current issues affect the sports industry and what they mean for the wider sporting landscape. Delve into topics such as commercialisation, politics and governance, gender equity and corporate social responsibility. You’ll form your own opinions on these complex issues and lead constructive discussions. By the end, you’ll have an agile mindset attuned to the evolving sports landscape, equipped with the awareness and skills to navigate real-world complexities in sports management.
Using sport event examples, you'll analyse both the global complexity and local scale of sports event management, applying theory to practice. Through assessments, you'll create innovative ideas and communicate these clearly in a variety of ways. Evaluate the post-event impacts of sport events through modern practice and research skills preparing you to confidentally manage global sporting events.
Examine the difficulties that modern sports organisations face regarding culture and workforce across various sectors, including issues like recruitment and retention. Evaluate how well human resource tools can track the impact of demographic, social, global and technological shifts on organisational practices and human resource strategies in the sports industry. Through discussion and case studies, you’ll develop your research skills and explore how the sports industry uses human resource within a global context. Analyse ideas and theories about equality and develop the skills to apply them effectively in the management of human resources within the workplace.
Changes to course content
We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.
Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry. If a module doesn't run, we'll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.
Facilities
Our £50m sports centre
Train and play in one of the UK's greenest sports centres, including an 8-lane swimming pool, virtual skiing, climbing wall and more.
How you'll spend your time
We recognise that you'll probably be juggling more demands when you do your Master's degree, as you may be working or you may have family responsibilities.
We'll give you as much indication here as we can of how much time you'll need to be on campus and how many hours you can expect to spend in self-directed study, but please note that these indications are always subject to change. You should receive your full timetable several weeks before you start with us.
Course structure
- We recommend that full-time students allocate 37 hours per week to their studies – equivalent to a full-time job
- We recommend that part-time students allocate around 18 hours per week to their studies – equivalent to a part-time job
- Studies include teaching time (lectures, seminars and tutorials), course work, independent learning and assessments
- On-campus, in-person teaching mostly takes place on Thursdays and Fridays over two teaching blocks (September to January and January to May)
- From May onwards, you'll focus on the development of your Human Resources assignment.
Teaching
Master's study is deeper and more specialised than an undergraduate degree. This means you'll focus on something that really matters to you and your career as you work closely with academics committed to the subject.
You'll spend more time in independent study and research than you did for your undergraduate degree, but the majority of your teaching time will be in-person and face-to-face.
Teaching on this course includes:
- lectures
- seminars
- workshops
- tutorials
Support materials will be available in Moodle – our virtual learning environment – but all teaching is on-campus and in-person.
Assessment
You'll be assessed through:
- essays
- industry reports
- reflective accounts
- professional presentations
- projects and portfolios
You'll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark.
You can get feedback on practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.
Term dates
September start
The Master's academic year runs from September to the following September. There are breaks at Christmas and Easter. Over the summer you'll be writing your project / dissertation.
January start
Courses that start in January have the same amount of teaching as September-start courses, and run from January to the following January. There are breaks at Christmas, Easter and in the summer. In the last few months you’ll be writing your project / dissertation.
Joining us as an international student
You'll feel at home in our international community and our diverse city. You'll be joining over 5,000 international students from more than 150 countries who are studying with us.
Learn more about international student life and how we can help you with visas, applications, arrival and settling in.
Career development
Careers this Master's prepares you for
This course specifically offers potential for career advancement within the growing sport management sector. It builds on the topics that sport management students will have covered at undergraduate level and introduces overarching themes such as funding, policy and strategy.
Key modules in governance, economics and contemporary issues have been designed to enhance student's transferable skills enabling some of our graduates to work in senior roles in areas such as human resources and event management.
Graduates of this course have gone onto roles such as:
- General deputy director
- Operations manager
- Community sports manager
- Head of PR and communications
- Marketing manager
- Chief executive
- Consultant
- Fitness instructor
- Industrial placement coordinator
- Marketing assistant
- Sport lecturer
Graduates of this course have gone on to work for companies such as:
- Rugby Football Union
- Ironman Group
- West Ham United Football Club
- Newcastle United Football Club
- Reading Football Club
- Portsmouth Football Club
- Fulham Football Club
- Norwich Football Club
- Hampshire County Cricket
- Lawn Tennis Association
- Olympic Athletic Centre of Athens
- The Soccer Conclave
- Rugby League World Cup
- TikTok
- Executives in Sport Group
- Hong Kong Darts Federation
Career planning
During your course you'll have expert career support from your tutors and our Careers and Employability Centre – which you can access for up to 5 years after you graduate.
Career support
You'll benefit from:
- Networking events
- Applied projects with employers
- 1-to-1 appointments
- CV and cover letter advice
- Interview preparation and practice
- Workshops to enhance your employability skills
- Recruitment events including the Student and Graduate Opportunities Fair
- Support starting your own business
Placements and industry connections
There's no formal work placement component of this course, but our regular visiting speakers are industry experts who'll offer their own advice and insights in professional and career development.
We encourage guest speakers and visiting alumni on all modules and have previously had speakers professional bodies and elite sports organisations such as the Dutch Olympic Committee, European Athletics and Formula One Racing.
Some of our students organise work experience and shadowing opportunities through our local partners and professional contacts at organisations such as Portsmouth Football Club.
Supporting you
Master's study is more focused on independent learning than undergraduate study, but you'll get lots of support via video, phone and face-to-face from teaching and support staff to enhance your learning experience and help you succeed. You can build your personalised network of support from the following people and services:
Types of support
Your personal tutor helps you make the transition to postgraduate study and gives you academic and personal support throughout your course.
As well as regular scheduled meetings with your personal tutor, they're also available at set times during the week if you want to chat with them about anything that can't wait until your next meeting.
You'll have help from a team of faculty learning support tutors. They can help you improve and develop your academic skills and support you in any area of your study.
They can help with:
- improving your academic writing (for example, essays, reports, dissertations)
- understanding and using assignment feedback
- managing your time and workload
- revision and exam techniques
All our labs and practical spaces are staffed by qualified laboratory support staff. They’ll support you in scheduled lab sessions and can give you one-to-one help when you do practical research projects.
During term time, Faculty Academic Skills Tutors (AST) are available for bookable 1-to-1 sessions, small group sessions and online sessions. These sessions are tailored to your needs.
Support is available for skills including:
- University study
- Getting into the right study mindset
- Note-taking and note-making skills
- Referencing
- Presentation skills
- Time management, planning, and goal setting
- Critical thinking
- Avoiding plagiarism
If you have a disability or need extra support, the Additional Support and Disability Centre (ASDAC) will give you help, support and advice.
Our online Learning Well mini-course will help you plan for managing the challenges of learning and student life, so you can fulfil your potential and have a great student experience.
You can get personal, emotional and mental health support from our Student Wellbeing Service, in person and online. This includes 1–2–1 support as well as courses and workshops that help you better manage stress, anxiety or depression.
If you require extra support because of a disability or additional learning need our specialist team can help you.
They'll help you to
- discuss and agree on reasonable adjustments
- liaise with other University services and facilities, such as the library
- access specialist study skills and strategies tutors, and assistive technology tutors, on a 1-to-1 basis or in groups
- liaise with external services
Library staff are available in person or by email, phone, or online chat to help you make the most of the University’s library resources. You can also request one-to-one appointments and get support from a librarian who specialises in your subject area.
The library is open 24 hours a day, every day, in term time.
The Maths Cafe offers advice and assistance with mathematical skills in a friendly, informal environment. You can come to our daily drop-in sessions, develop your mathematics skills at a workshop or use our online resources.
If English isn't your first language, you can do one of our English language courses to improve your written and spoken English language skills before starting your degree. Once you're here, you can take part in our free In-Sessional English (ISE) programme to improve your English further.
How to apply
Unlike undergraduate applications, which go through UCAS, applications for this Master's course are made directly to us.
There's no deadline for applications to this course. We accept applications right up until the start dates in September and January, as long as there are places available. If you wait until your start month to apply, you may find that the course is full.
If you're applying as an international student, remember that you'll need to leave plenty of time to get your visa organised.
You can find more advice about applying in our Master's application checklist. International students and current students and recent graduates of the University of Portsmouth also have some different application options, which are detailed below.
Extra information for international students
If you're an international student, you can apply directly to us using the same application form as UK students.
You could also get an agent to help with your application. Check your country page for details of agents in your region. To find out what to include in your application, head to the how to apply page of our international students section.
If you don’t meet the English language requirements for this course yet, you can achieve the level you need by successfully completing a pre-sessional English programme before you start your course.
Ready to apply?
Start this course in September 2025
Start this course in January 2026
I'm a current Portsmouth student, or a recent Portsmouth graduate
If you're currently in your final year of study at Portsmouth, or you graduated since July 2024, you're eligible to make a fast track application. You'll have:
- a shorter application form to complete
- access to the 20% Alumni fee discount
- a guaranteed conditional offer, for most Master's courses
After you apply
Once we receive your application, we may ask you for further information. We will then either make you an offer or suggest alternatives if your application is unsuccessful.
You'll usually get a decision within 10 working days, so you shouldn't have to wait too long. Some courses have an interview stage – we'll let you know if you need to prepare for one.
Learn more about how we assess your application.
Admissions terms and conditions
When you accept an offer to study at the University of Portsmouth, you also agree to abide by our Student Contract (which includes the University's relevant policies, rules and regulations). You should read and consider these before you apply.