Business Studies and Sport Sciences BSc

About the Course

This course, taught jointly by the Brunel Business School and School of Sport and Education, combines a knowledge and understanding of some of the principal aspects of business and management and a variety of sport sciences disciplines.

Please note that the course title, structure and typical modules may change following re-evaluation this year.

Aims

This course, taught jointly by the Brunel Business School and School of Sport and Education, aims to combine a knowledge and understanding of some of the principal aspects of business and management and a variety of sport sciences disciplines.

Enquiries

Course Enquiries
For questions about the degree itself or Home/EU enquiries prior to application.

Admissions Tutor: Noel Kinrade
Tel: +44 (0)1895 267383
Email: sse-ugcourses@brunel.ac.uk

Application Enquiries (Home/EU)
For Home/EU applications already submitted.
Email: admissions@brunel.ac.uk
Tel. +44 (0)1895 265265

International Student Enquiries
For all questions about this degree:
Fill out our Webform
Email: brunel-international@brunel.ac.uk
Tel. +44 (0)1895 265519

* If your participation in, and training requirements for, high level sporting competition increase, it may be possible to switch to part-time study. *

Special Features

Business Studies | Sport Sciences

Business Studies

• Our students have excellent employment prospects – graduates have gone on to work for prestigious companies such as Merrill Lynch, Abbey, Lloyds, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, Coca cola, Ernst & Young, Virgin Trains, Accenture, HSBC, BT, Deutsche Bank and the BBC.
  
  
• The School hosts three world-renowned research centres in the areas of Emotion Work, Enterprise, Sustainability and Ethics, and Organisation and System Design.
  
  
• Emphasis is on gaining "employable knowledge" which is highly up-to-date. We aim to provide you with an education which will prepare you for the future needs of the working world, not simply to cope with its present preoccupations.
  
  
• Fast-track route to professional qualifications - the Accountancy and Marketing pathways are professionally accredited and offer exemption from professional entry exams.
  
  
• The School's specialist areas include: marketing, small business management; human resource management; organisational change; technology and business; copy right and property rights; business computing; accounting; entrepreneurialism; gender; the culture and leisure industries; business ethics and management thinking and learning. Students also benefit from University-wide expertise in eCommerce and multimedia.
  
  
• High quality teaching from lecturers with 'hands-on' experience in business and commerce.
  
  
• You will have the opportunity to gain paid professional experience working in prominent companies or organisations. These are high-quality placements with graduate-like responsibilities. Many students get offered full-time graduate posts at the companies where they carried out their work placements.
  
  
• Good links with business. This means:
  • Better work placements
  • Up-to-date course content
  • Help in finding a good job after you graduate.

Sport Sciences

• Sport Sciences at Brunel are ranked 8th in the UK for sport according to The 2008 Times Good University Guide.
  
  
• We boast some of the best sports facilities in the UK with a recent £13 million investment in a new indoor and outdoor sports and fitness complex. Our new facilities include an extensive indoor athletics and netball training facility, a sports centre equipped with squash courts, basketball and netball courts, a weight-training area with free and fixed weights, a fitness suite incorporating treadmills, cycles and rowing machines and a superb climbing wall. Outside there is a six-lane all-weather 400 metre track, grass and all-weather, third generation, synthetic pitches and tennis courts.
  
  
• We have an international reputation for sporting excellence, offering sport scholarships and making flexible arrangements for high level performers. We attract Olympic athletes, and up to 100 international sporting honours are achieved by our students each year.
  
  
• We offer variety and flexibility, allowing you to follow your own particular areas of interest. We do so by studying sport from different perspectives - for example, biomechanical, historical, pedagogical, philosophical, physiological, psychological, and sociological - and by offering courses and options.
  
  
• Staff have national and international reputations for their research and publications and some are accredited by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), enabling them to work with high performance athletes.
  
  
• We prepare you for a broad range of career opportunities in a wide range of sport-related jobs, in such areas as coaching, consultancy, fitness testing and training, higher education and research, journalism, sport development, sport management, teaching, and youth work.
  
  
• Graduates have found positions with - among others - the UK and regional Sports Councils, national governing bodies of sport, international organisations, professional clubs, local authorities, in the leisure industry, sports clothing/footwear companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and the armed forces.
  
  
• Up to 100 national sporting honours are achieved by our current students each year and we can boast many Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European champions amongst our graduates.
  

Facts and Figures

Brunel Business School

Brunel Business School is the focus for all business and management teaching and research at the University. It offers a range of single honours undergraduate programmes and is also home to the Graduate Business School, which offers Master's programmes, the Brunel MBA, and PhD degrees.

The School is an active research centre. This leading-edge work feeds into your courses and ensures that you gain 'employable knowledge' which is highly up-to-date. Our specialist areas include: small business management; human resource management; organisational change; marketing; technology and business; copy right and property rights; entrepreneurialism; gender; management thinking and learning.

Students also benefit from University-wide expertise in eCommerce and multimedia, and accounting and finance.

School of Sport and Education

We enjoy a prominent position within the University, building upon traditions that stem from Borough Road College - the oldest teacher-training college in the British Commonwealth.

We have a long-standing reputation for excellence of teaching and an impressive record of research and publication which consistently attracts high-calibre students, including high level sportsmen and sportswomen who successfully combine study with training and competition.

Our students have varied backgrounds and interests - some are keen to gain knowledge about sports performance, others are keen to explore the links between sport and, for example, community, education, health, and politics.

Sport is the most popular form of culture in societies across the world and the academic study of sport has grown in popularity to meet the demands of the global sports industry.

In parallel with these developments, sport sciences courses at Brunel are up-to-date, dynamic, and forward-looking. If you are interested in studying sport in all its diversity and forging a career in sport-related work, we welcome your application to study for an honours degree in sport sciences at Brunel.

Staff
Sport sciences staff members have a high reputation for scholarship and are well known nationally and internationally for their research and publications. Staff members regularly attend and present papers at national and international conferences and are invited speakers and examiners for other universities, as well as acting as consultants for sport organisations and agencies.

You may see our staff on sport documentary or discussion programmes on television or hear them on radio programmes.

Current staff members include those who have represented their country (including a past World Record holder) and several who are coaching or managing sport teams at the highest level.

Members of staff have attended recent World Championships, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games as sport sciences consultants, team managers or coaches to British teams or individual competitors.

Staff involvement with student clubs and individual high-level athletes is reflected in successes at national and international levels.

Course Content

The Joint honours course in Business and Management and Sport Sciences aims to provide you with knowledge and understanding of some of the principal aspects of business and management combined with an understanding of a range of sport sciences disciplines. This should prepare you for a career in sports management, marketing or a related area.

After completion of 60 Level 1 credits in sport sciences and 60 Level 1 credits in business and management, you take a combination of modules at Levels 2 and 3 to complete 360 credits over the three-year degree (NB You must complete at least 160 credits in each subject).

Typical Modules

Level 1

• Principles and Practice of Marketing
• Organisational Behaviour and Analysis
• Introduction to Management Enquiry 
• Sociology of Sport
• The Psychology of Personal Development and Sport
• Coaching and Management of Sport

Level 2

• Marketing Communications
• Managing Change and Creativity in Organisations
• Human Resource Management and its International Dimensions
• Sporting Environments 
• Sport and International Development
• The Principle of Coaching Effectiveness

Level 3 core

• Issues and Controversies in Management Project (or Marketing Project) 
• Entrepreneurship and Small Business Ventures
• Sport, Globalisation and International Politics

Level 3 optional
any two from the four specified below:

• Gender and Organisations
• Innovation and Knowledge Management
• Critical Issues in Youth Sport Work 
• Sport, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy
   

Teaching and Learning

How will we maximise your learning?
Throughout your time as a student there will be a strong emphasis on active and independent learning.

The development of independent study skills is facilitated through, for example, set reading, student-led seminars, group tasks and presentations, laboratory work, self-testing, and culminates in the writing of the final year dissertation.

In order to maximise your learning opportunities, we are committed to providing you with access to high quality resources (including those designed for students with special needs) and the best possible learning environment.

We will introduce you to the services provided by the Library and by the Computer Centre as part of your induction programme and give you a library card, username and password allowing you unlimited access throughout your period of study to the library resources, the University intranet, email and the World Wide Web.

How will we teach you?
Teaching excellence is given a very high priority. Our teaching is enhanced by staff scholarship, research and involvement in sport performance and with national/international agencies and organisations.

We constantly review our teaching methods in response to students' mid-module and end-of-module feedback. Developing innovative learning and teaching methods, including 'virtual laboratories' and use of the Internet is an ongoing process.

Lectures
Lectures take place in a relatively formal setting. They aim to impart information and provide you with a framework and the stimulation for independent study. You are encouraged to take notes to maximise this learning opportunity.

Seminars
Seminars are an integral part of the teaching process in sport sciences and are where lecture material is examined in more detail, or theoretical concepts and/or data are analysed and discussed in small groups. They give you the opportunity to engage with members of staff and other students to a greater extent than is possible in a lecture setting.

Tutorials
All our members of academic staff have published office hours during which time they are available to discuss academic matters relating to specific modules. Individual or small group tutorials are integral to a specific module, eg, the dissertation module.

Practicals
Practical classes are designed to give you hands-on experience of some of the experimental techniques relevant to particular sport sciences disciplines. They often give you the opportunity to use laboratory and field equipment while working with human subjects in order to collect, analyse, interpret, and present your results in an appropriate format.

Importantly, there are sport performance-based classes, where the emphasis is on linking theory with practice.

Computer-assisted sessions
Computer-assisted sessions are used to teach quantitative data analysis methods during which you will be given the chance to practise analytical methods in a computer laboratory, equipped with sufficient terminals to allow everyone hands-on experience.

Many of the laboratory practical sessions in physiology and biomechanics also incorporate the use of information technology in data collection, analysis and computer simulation.

How will we assess your progress?
Your progress will be assessed in a variety of ways. Assessment procedures include individual and group project work, essays, case studies, oral presentations, practical vivas, laboratory report writing and computer-based tests.

End-of-term formal written examinations frequently form at least part of the assessment of a module and may include a number of elements, for example, multiple choice, written essays, short answer and data analysis questions.

How will we support and guide you?
Should you choose to study at Brunel you will be guided and supported from the admissions stage onwards. On entry to the University you will be given a personal tutor who is available to give advice about any matter within their capacity.

They can also point you in the right direction should you need more specialist help, for example, counselling, medical treatment, dyslexia support. The tutor-student relationship normally lasts the whole of the three-year period of your degree course.

Hence on completing your degree and entering the world of work, there will be a member of staff ideally placed to write you an academic and character reference.

Assessment

Each subject employs a range of assessment methods, including course work, individual projects, oral presentations, group projects, written examinations and practicals.

Practicals include sports lab work and your performance on the field of play. Emphasis is placed on active involvement in learning.

Employability

Work placements are not available in this course.

Careers

How will we prepare you for employment?
Brunel graduates enjoy an excellent employment record, regularly amongst the best of British Universities, and there will be a strong focus throughout your study on the development of employability skills.

As a future employee you will need to equip yourself with both specific sport sciences knowledge and a range of more generic skills which are valued in the workplace. To this end, we work with you to develop a 'personal development profile' which helps you to identify and works towards your specific needs and career goals.

In particular, you will have the opportunity regularly to practise:

• collecting, collating, interpreting and presenting numerical and literary data;
  
  
• using learning resources, including the use of the Internet to extract relevant information;
  
  
• information technology skills, including, word-processing; using a spreadsheet and graphics software;
  
  
• report writing: effectively reviewing, analysing and synthesising a disparate body of literature;
  
  
• oral presentation skills, including communication and listening skills;
  
  
• skills which develop self-management and personal organisation, including ability to work effectively, both independently and as a member of a team;
  
  
• time-management.

The University has a drop-in careers centre where you can obtain advice and information on a range of career opportunities. We supplement this service by a range of means, including employer interviews and specific career presentations.

Sporting Traditions
Below are examples of achievements of current students and graduates:

• Athletics: Kathy Smallwood-Cook (greatest number of medals of any British sprinter); Iwan Thomas (400m champion, European Championships, World Cup and Commonwealth Games); Anthony Whiteman (bronze medal, 1500m Commonwealth Games); Kelly Sotherton (Olympic bronze medal, Heptathlon '04).
  
  
• Basketball: Paul Stimpson (GB and England captain).
  
  
• Bobsleigh: Courtney Rumbold (member of the Olympic bronze medal 4-man GB team).
  
  
• Boxing: Audley Harrison (Olympic gold medal, super heavyweight boxing).
  
  
• Canoeing: World Champions Steve Harris and Jeremy West.
  
  
• Football: Tony Adams (England and Arsenal Captain).
  
  
• Hockey: Ian Taylor (GB goalkeeper and Olympic gold medallist); Brett Garrard, Mark Pearn, Kate Walsh and Joanne Ellis (GB Olympic hockey team).
  
  
• Netball: Anne-Marie Muller (England team member).
  
  
• Rowing: James Cracknell (member of the Olympic gold medal winning coxless four).
  
  
• Rugby: Richard Hill, Conor O'Shea and Agustin Pichot (international Rugby Union players; England/British and Irish Lions, Ireland and Argentina respectively); Abi Ekoku (manager of the Bradford Bulls Rugby league side).
  
  
• Trampolining: Natalie O'Connor (GB and England team member).

Fees for 2012/13 entry

Home/EU students: £9,000 full-time, £6,750 part-time

International students: £12,650 full-time

Brunel is introducing over 1000 new scholarships for 2012, meaning that one in three applicants who join Brunel next year will receive financial support from the University. See our fees and funding page for full details

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements for 2012 Entry

• GCE A-level BBB including a science or social science subject or PE at A-level (General Studies/Critical Thinking accepted as third A-level).
• Irish Leaving Certificate ABBBB.
• Scottish Advanced Highers BBB.
• Advanced Diploma Progression Diploma grade B in Business, Administration and Finance, plus an A-level at grade B for Additional and Specialist Learning.
• BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma DDD in a business-related subject.
• IBDP 32 points.
• Access Access courses in a relevant subject area are considered on an individual basis.

For all of the above, 5 GCSEs or equivalent at Grade C or above are also required, to include English and Maths.

Entry Requirements for 2011 Entry (click to expand)

English Language Requirements

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.