The modules on our MSc Sport Business and Leadership programme have been carefully put together to give you the most up-to-date and relevant set of skills and knowledge for progressing in your chosen career. For more information about part-time study patterns, please contact the School/Department.

Compulsory modules

Leadership Models and Practices: Application to a Sport Context (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to deliver a thorough grounding in the main leadership models, and the issues that impact on leadership practice in the sport environment. It is intended as an introduction to leadership and will be the theoretical foundation upon which other sport leadership units are built.

Leadership, Diversity and Change in the Sport Industry (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce students to recent developments in leadership research with focus on diversity and change in sport business
  • Become familiar with a range of leadership challenges executives face when managing culturally diverse, or remote teams to better understand the adoption of leadership styles in different parts of the sport business industry
  • Examine the challenges increasingly high innovation pressures bring for sport business professionals and how seemingly competing management strategies can be balanced to satisfy various stakeholders

Grand Challenges (15 credits)

The aim of this module is to give students an opportunity to explore grand challenges facing our global society and to propose imaginative solutions to specific challenges in one or more country.

Students will critically reflect on the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals and think about how Loughborough University's Creating Better Futures. Together Strategy might contribute to them.

Students will engage with ideas and approaches to possible solutions from their own programme and gain diverse insights from Loughborough University London's interdisciplinary ecosystem. This will involve solution-oriented thinking and a balance between criticality and possibility, leading to a deep understanding of grand challenges and imagining creative responses to them.

Optional modules

One of:

Strategic Sports Sponsorship (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce students to key concepts in sport sponsorship
  • Develop an understanding of the nature of sport sponsorship.

Sport, Politics, and Diplomacy (15 credits)

The aim of this module is to understand the role that sport plays in political and diplomatic issues at a national and international level. Using contemporary examples from developed, transitioning, developing, and fuel-based economies, the module will explore how sport can be used to positive (e.g., facilitating socio-economic plans) or negative (e.g., whitewashing human rights violations) ends. In doing so, the module aims to promote a critical, evidence-based understanding of the interplay between sport, politics, and diplomacy.

International HRM (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to:

  • examine HRM strategies and practices in institutional and cultural contexts
  • examine the role of HRM strategies in the management of multinational firms.
  • understand how institutional and cultural differences affect multinational companies decision
  • identify emerging issues in international HRM and various challenges that multinational companies face in managing people and workplaces globally

Compulsory modules

Critical Reflective Leadership and Sport Management (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to create an awareness of how critical reflection can facilitate improved leadership and personal growth in sport management practice.

Research and Insight in the Sport Industry (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to:

  • Become familiar with a range of research methodologies to better understand the role and adoption of insight and research in the sport business industry.
  • Examine the scope and size of the sport business industry globally and the challenges this brings for insight and research.

Leadership Development in Sport (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to support students in their personal leadership development and to evaluate the effectiveness of leadership development programmes in the sport industry.

Dissertation (60 credits)

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.

The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding for their individual research project and they will be guided through the two options available to them to complete their dissertation:

  • A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice.
  • A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments.

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.

Optional modules

One of:

Collaborative Project (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to:

  • Provide students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings (understood in this context as involving a range of multidisciplinary, multicultural and demographic elements in differing configurations), aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence, while raising awareness and appreciation of diversity itself.
  • Provide students with hands on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions.
  • Support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds.
  • Provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.

Sport Integrity (15 credits)

The aims of this module are to:

  • Examine the nature of sports integrity and the threats to it presented by the manipulation of sporting outcomes and corrupt governance practices in both national and international contexts, including key legal and regulatory areas.
  • Develop a greater awareness of ethical issues in relation to combatting sport integrity issues.
  • Explain the role of the board, and senior management, in providing organisational leadership and implementing cultural change, with particular emphasis on composition and values-based leadership models.
  • Consider the importance of professional conduct, athlete reputation and public confidence in sport.
  • Critically review a range of legal and regulatory issues in sport.

Compulsory modules

Dissertation (60 credits)

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.

The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding for their individual research project and they will be guided through the two options available to them to complete their dissertation:

  • A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice.
  • A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments.

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.