What is the Sports and Exercise Science BSc with Placement Year?
Our Sports and Exercise BSc with a Placement Year will offer you the knowledge, skills and values required to become a confident, competent and analytical sports and exercise scientist of the future.
Led by experts in their field at Lancaster Medical School, you will be set up to succeed in a supportive and forward-thinking environment with excellent lab facilities.
This version of the course will see you spend your third year on placement, so you will graduate with real workplace experience already on your CV.
What careers can this degree lead to?
This degree can prepare you to work with elite athletes or sports teams to help them reach peak performance, or to support people to live active, healthy lives following illness or injury.
Whatever your aspirations, this course will offer you the tools and knowledge to help people achieve their potential through physical activity. Plus, your dedicated placement year will see you put that knowledge into practice before you graduate.
What will you study each year?
- Year 1: you will get a grounding in the core disciplines of biomechanics, physiology and psychology, alongside topics such as nutrition, digital technologies and data analysis.
- Year 2: you will take a deeper dive into sports and exercise, studying biomechanics, psychology and physiology in greater detail. You will also begin to explore sports and exercise medicine and research methods.
- Year 3: you will spend a full year on a professional placement, applying what you’ve learned in a real sport, exercise or health setting and building your employability well ahead of graduation. During your placement year, you will pay just 20 per cent of the usual course fees.
- Year 4: you will return to Lancaster to undertake a research project on a topic of your choice, making a unique contribution to sports and exercise science research. With a greater choice of optional modules, you will have the opportunity to explore the themes in exercise and health or sports that most interest you.
You will graduate equipped with a professional profile, backed by a year of real workplace experience, ready to embark on a successful career or further study.
How does the placement year work?
Sport and exercise scientists are in increasing demand, driven by professional athletes striving to maximise their potential and by health officials working to encourage participation in exercise and physical activity. Our optional, integrated placement year will give you a head start in this competitive field.
Taken in Year 3, after you have gained a strong understanding of the principles of sports and exercise science and before your final-year research project, your placement year gives you the chance to work in an organisation relevant to your future career, whether that’s a professional sports club, an NHS or private health setting, a national sporting body, a school or community sport and fitness organisation, or a research-focused setting.
During your placement year, you will:
- Add a full year of practical, paid or structured work experience to your CV before you graduate.
- Apply the knowledge and skills you have developed in Years 1 and 2 in a professional environment.
- Build a network of professional contacts even before you graduate.
- Return to Lancaster for your final year with a clearer sense of the career path you want to pursue, and the confidence to pursue it.
What is student life like on this course?
As a student of Sports and Exercise Science at Lancaster you’ll join a supportive and thriving community where our academics will get to know you as an individual. Our small-group practical sessions are a great way to make friends for life.
Why is this course taught within Lancaster Medical School?
Our Sports and Exercise Science BSc is one of only a few courses of its kind to be delivered within a medical school. This means that you will:
- Learn in a highly respected and academically rigorous environment.
- Benefit from our connections with clinicians, health practitioners and sports professionals.
- Be taught by research and industry experts within Lancaster Medical School.
- Use clinical processes and equipment such as blood tests and analysis, electrocardiogram (ECG) readers, glucose and lactate analysis machines, cortex gas analysers (which assess a person’s lung, heart and metabolism at rest and under stress) and 3D motion capture to measure how joints move.
What facilities and technology will you use?
From your first weeks with us, you will learn to use cutting-edge, professional-standard equipment, tests and techniques. With outstanding facilities located across our £25m sports centre and modern Health Innovation Campus, you will capture and analyse physiological and biomechanical data. You will also explore psychological interventions to maximise performance and improve health.
- Human Performance Laboratory: you’ll spend a lot of time here, getting hands-on experience with a range of research-grade equipment, including a blood analysis station, a professional-standard treadmill with gas analyser, and an Isokinetic Dynamometer: the same equipment used by international sports teams.
- Human Biomechanics Laboratory: gold-standard equipment for measuring biomechanical function, including 3D markerless technology, 3D motion capture, force platforms and electromyography.
- Health Innovation Campus: a purpose-built, multidisciplinary facility that is home to our biomechanics laboratory and plenty of space for collaborative working or quiet study.
- Sport at Lancaster: a 100-station fitness suite, a 25m indoor pool, an 8.5m climbing wall, and a wide range of courts and pitches (membership required).
What careers do graduates go into?
A degree in Sports and Exercise Science can open up a wide range of careers in the health sector and sports industry, including:
- Exercise Physiologist
- Biomechanist
- Performance Analyst
- Physiotherapist (with further training)
- Strength and Conditioning Coach (with further training)
You may also pursue further postgraduate study here at Lancaster Medical School or embark on a research career.
Our course has been carefully designed with employability at its heart, both through the content of our taught modules, our integrated placement year, and the professional development opportunities available. This means you will graduate with a strong scientific understanding of sports and exercise science, a full year of professional experience in a real-world sport, exercise or health setting, and the mindset, confidence and workplace experience to stand out in the competitive world of employment.
Our teaching and assessment styles replicate professional environments, meaning our graduates have significant experience in applying their knowledge even before starting their placement. Tutorials and workshops on career planning are also integral parts of your degree, and your placement year gives you the chance to test-drive a career path before you graduate.
Where have graduates gone on to work?
Our graduates have embarked on exciting careers in the sporting, health and associated industries, working with big-name organisations including Manchester United and the NHS.
Roles at professional and national sporting organisations
- Player Recruitment operations at City Football Group
- First Team Analyst for Morecambe Football Club
- Fitness and Sports Instructor with the Canadian Forces
Health-based roles such as
- Physician Associate
- Physiotherapist
- Trainee Vascular Scientist
- Senior Assistant Clinical Cardiac Physiologist
Careers in broader fields, including
- Product specialist at Stryker Orthopaedics, a medical technology company
- Marketing Coordinator
- Science teaching roles
Some of our graduates have also gone on to postgraduate study, taking a deeper dive into areas such as:
- Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury mitigation at Manchester United
- Nutritional supplementation for cognitive and physical performance in elite athletes and surgeons with Team Nutrition
- Attitudes towards and perceptions of concussion in rugby
How does Lancaster prepare you for the world of work?
Lancaster University is dedicated to ensuring that you gain a highly reputable degree. We are also committed to ensuring that you graduate with relevant life and work-based skills.
Because professional skills are embedded throughout our curriculum, and further sharpened by your year-long placement, you will develop wider expertise valued by employers including communication, teamwork and negotiation skills, project management and problem-solving skills, ethical and environmental awareness.
We are unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award, which offers you the opportunity to complete activities such as work experience, employability/career development, campus community and social development.
