Bournemouth University Department of Sport & Event Management

Our Story

With over one thousand hundred students studying at any one time, we are one of the largest centres for sport and events. Our philosophy is to provide an education that combines theory, research and practice in in a broad range of fields and disciplines, including sport psychology, event management, sport development, coaching sciences, physiology, performance analysis, marketing, sport management, health sciences, and the sociology of sport.

Our academic staff are multidisciplinary and work with a variety of partners, both nationally and internationally, and research is currently being undertaken in association with universities in the China, USA, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Asia, Brazil, Russia and Europe. Our international links continue to develop, with staff undertaking a range of collaborative research activity with colleagues from the University of Western Sydney in Australia, Murray State University (USA), the University of Maryland (USA), The Tourism Institute, Macau, University College, Florida, Victoria University in Australia, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, the University of Otago (New Zealand), and the German Sport University Cologne. Our students have been able to engage in educational and research activities with our partner universities in Macau, Hong Kong, Florida, Cologne, Heidelberg and Groningen, and placements in organisations across the world, reflecting the global nature of the sport and event sectors.

We are active members of key academic and professional organisations. Within the event sector, we are member of the Association of Events Management Education (AEME), the Leisure Studies Association (LSA), the International Special Events Society (ISES), the Event and Visual Communication Association (EVCOM), National Outdoor Event Association (NOEA), and the Institute of Event Management (IEM). Within sport, we’re recognised as a Premier Skills Development Partner, one of only a few universities in the UK to have this recognition. Our Sport courses are endorsed by the Club Managers’ Association of Europe (CMAE), a non-profit making professional association with members involved in the management of sports clubs (golf, tennis, sailing, rowing, rugby, football, cricket), health & fitness clubs, leisure, city and dining clubs located throughout Europe, a partnership which offers career and placement links, guest speakers and fantastic networking opportunities to our students.

Our programme includes many high-profile of guest speakers from industry, student visits and live student projects with organisations and companies that benefit the students, the organisations, the community and the academics.