Curious about studying Sports Coaching and Physical Education - BSc (Hons)at Birmingham City University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
City Centre Campus (The Curzon Building)
Full Time
Sep 2027
3 Year
The course content is designed to ensure graduates develop the pedagogical practice required to coach athletes across a range of ages and abilities, as well as the delivery of all areas of the Physical Education curriculum at both Primary and Secondary school level. Following graduation, you will be in a position to gain employment within a sports coaching or school sport setting, or embark on postgraduate studies, such as a PGCE in Physical Education. We will help you develop a keen understanding of your own coaching and teaching philosophy, along with providing you with industry and cultural factors that influence the wider context of sport. You will gain practical application of the theoretical underpinnings of coaching and PE teaching and have access to hands-on experiences. Physical education continues to be an important part of Government agendas, so with this in mind, you will also learn relevant and up-to-date information that is linked and mapped to the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE). You will be taught the contemporary information that educators within this sector require. It won’t just be about sport either; you'll be looking at different aspects of health and people at opposite ends of the health spectrum. It's a chance for you to gain the knowledge and skills needed to negotiate different challenges in your future profession. To help build these skills, you'll go on placements, working face-to-face and gaining first-hand experience in a coaching and/or school environment, something which will enhance your future employability. By studying this course, you’ll split your time between our recently extended £71 million campus in Edgbaston, Birmingham, and the world-class Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, Birmingham which contain our state-of-the-art sport and exercise laboratory, sports therapy rooms, cutting-edge resources and a designated sports area. The Stadium was home to the Commonwealth Games in summer 2022, and the University is investing an additional £5m in areas across both main stands which will be home to our students.
The aim of this module is to introduce the theories and methods of coaching. This will include topics such as athlete development, coaching models, coach education, interpersonal relationships, and contextual influences on coaching. The module will focus on delivering a blend of lectures, seminars, and practicals. This will provide you with the knowledge and understanding of relevant concepts integrated within the coaching process to underpin the planning, delivery, and reflection of applied practice. Therefore, the key purpose of this module is to encourage you to reflect upon how they may apply the module content into real-life situations. As a developing coach and member of the sport community, this module will encourage you to reflect in their own life experiences which will be a valuable tool to facilitate knowledge translation.
This module aims to provide an insight into the strategies that can be used to analyse and quantify sports performance in a valid and consistent manner to help inform training and match-play decisions. Objective analysis of performance is achieved through the collection of real-time data, which will be analysed and reported to coaches in a useable manner. The means by which performance analysis data can be used to enhance training interventions, augment learning and improve decision-making in competitive situations will be the focus of discussion in sessions.
This module will provide you with a core foundation of knowledge in Physical Education (PE) and School Sport. It is intended that you will be aware of how PE differs to School Sport, but also how they can be interlinked.
This module will provide an understanding of how children develop through a physical, emotional, health and well-being perspective. Students will learn about how skill and ability levels can differ between children, and factors which influence development of these. Further studies will focus on how children process information in order to make decisions, and this can be compared and contrasted as children grow through different maturational stages.
This module will introduce the academic skills required for studying Sport and Exercise in Higher Education, and to the resources needed to support academic and personal development. The skills and resources introduced in this module will be used throughout the course, and after successful completion of studies, to enable lifelong learning as a competent and autonomous practitioner. The module will introduce the research process and consider how knowledge is generated in an applied manner for Sport and Exercise Science, Sports Therapy, and Sports Coaching and Physical Education disciplines. Students will be provided with skills in relation to finding appropriate sources of information relating to their area of study and be able to read and understand these effectively. There will be a focus on the scientific method, academic writing skills, data collection and analysis skills.
This module aims to develop the student as a practitioner in Sport and Exercise Science. It will cover practical, interpersonal, and transferable skill development. The module will introduce the concept of interdisciplinary teams and students will be introduced to the skills and knowledge required to work collaboratively within the disciplines of physiology, nutrition, psychology, and biomechanics, to solve a variety of problems related to sports performance, exercise, and health. The module has a focus on being able to write an effective CV in relation to working within the field of Sport and Exercise Science. The content will include employability skills such as development of an industry-specific CV, personal development planning, and goal setting. The module will also cover important laboratory and field-testing practical skills.
This module aims to develop and utilise pedagogical skills in a real-world setting, whilst providing an opportunity to critically develop learning and experience, and work on a live piece of investigation with the placement provider. Application of subject knowledge and the National Curriculum for PE/ National Governing Body syllabus will be key to the successful completion of this work. This module will also provide an opportunity to develop essential employability attributes (e.g. interpersonal skills) which will also offer ideal preparation for the Level 6 Sports Coaching and PE work placement module.
Within this module you will learn about a range of issues surrounding PE and sports coaching. You will identify the key principles of what helps students engage in PE and sport, and what local, national and international initiatives are available to help promote a physical active and healthy lifestyle.
Within this module students will learn about the reasons for physical activity promotion and the barriers to physical activity participation. Students will identify the recommended daily guidelines for physical activity, whilst exploring health and social strategies to improve lifestyle through facilitating physical activity behaviours.
Within this module you will learn about a range of pedagogical practices which bring about high quality PE lessons where school children are physically active for sustainable periods of time. You will identify the key principles of high quality teaching practice and relate these to practical experiences of teaching PE and sport.
This module will prepare students for the Independent Research Project at level 6. The module will provide scenarios and conditions that will improve students’ ability to interpret and critique research, as well as make logical conclusions. Learning and teaching will be carried out on aspects such as how to answer research questions by analysing and presenting data, and a variety of ‘soft skills’, such as organisation and communication are developed.
This aims to be a problem-based module where you will develop, utilise, and further apply pedagogical skills in a real world setting. The module will provide an opportunity to critically develop learning and experience, and work on a live piece of investigation by agreement with the placement provider. Application of subject knowledge and the national curriculum for PE/ National Governing Body syllabus will be key to the successful completion of this work. This module will also provide an opportunity to develop essential employability attributes (e.g., interpersonal skills) which you will develop further from the Sports Coaching and Physical Education – Professional Practice 1.
The aim of this module is to provide students with the understanding and key concepts of working in a high performance sporting environment from a coaching perspective. The primary objectives are to ensure students recognise the holistic nature of high performance sport (i.e., how the coach connects with staff in other disciplines such as Sport Science, Strength and Conditioning, Performance Analysis, Psychology, and Nutrition), and are capable of delivering progressive coaching sessions in relation to a sport-specific performance plan. This is an advanced module into high performance sports coaching, which further develops knowledge and practical skills gained through The Coaching Process and Applied Pedagogy in Sports Coaching and Physical Education.
This module provides you with the opportunity to design and carry out a substantive piece of independent research which is focused on an area of interest related to your programme of study. This in-depth, self-managed study will encourage you to examine a critical issue from your sector or discipline.
This module aims to further develop your understanding of the psychological aspects of development and progress in sport. The module also explores the various ways this topic is researched. The underlying aim of the module is to contribute to your development as a more thoughtful and effective sport scientist. It will equip you with a range of strategies and tools for investigating the psychological aspects of athletic development.
BBC Grades/points required
Not currently available, please Contact University for up to date information.