Sport Science, Health and Nutrition BSc (Hons)
- Level(s) of Study: Undergraduate
- UCAS Code(s): CB64 (full-time); 350P (sandwich)
- Start Date(s): September 2023
- Duration: Three years full-time / four years with placement
- Study Mode(s): Full-time
- Campus: Clifton Campus
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Entry Requirements:
More information
Introduction:
Ultimately, nothing is more important than our health. That is why we’ll develop your understanding of nutrition and exercise science understanding and provide you with the skills to apply this in the real world. These opportunities give you the experience employers expect to see.
You’ll be a confident graduate ready to become an effective health practitioner and enhance lifelong health.
Roles in physical activity and nutrition in health promotion are gaining a high profile, so choosing to specialise in exercise, nutrition, and health provides you with many rewarding career options.
Over 25 health and related organisations support this course, all providing valuable industry experience – including the East.
Midlands Platform for Health and Wellbeing, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Slimming World, and Nottingham City Council.
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Top 20 in the UK for teaching quality in Sport Science (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023) -
Our network of external health practitioners will interact with you in various ways, such as through workshops, guest lectures, work placements, volunteering opportunities, and research projects. -
We recognise that behaviour change is a key part of health promotion, so we've included Communication Skills and Psychology as a core part of your course. -
You'll become a member of the NTU Health Promotion Forum and work alongside the NTU Health Promotion Specialist on real-life briefs to improve the health of NTU students and staff.
What you’ll study
The course has been developed with input from public health, exercise and nutrition practitioners to ensure you have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills required to enhance your job prospects. You will have numerous opportunities to practice what you have learned, including:
- dietary and exercise assessment sessions with volunteers (supported by your tutors)
- designing and delivering healthy eating sessions
- working in the community to increase physical activity levels
- practising your communication skills.
Learn a new language
Alongside your study, you also have the opportunity to learn a new language. The University Language Programme (ULP) is available to all students and gives you the option of learning a new language or improving the skills you already have. Find out more about the ULP.
Introduction to Sport and Exercise Physiology
This module provides the foundations of the key human systems (anatomical and physiological) and their responses and adaptations to sports and exercise.
Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology
Examine the psychological consequences of engaging in sport and exercise and the mental factors that impact quality sport and exercise experiences.
Food and Healthy Eating
You will study food microbiology and food hygiene and the factors affecting the growth of foodborne microorganisms, food poisoning and recommendations to ensure high standards of food hygiene.
Sport Culture and Society: a critical introduction
Explore the importance of the social sciences in understanding sports and in the education of every sports professional.
Foundation Nutrition
Learn the essential principles and concepts of nutrition, focusing on the structure and function of nutrients, the effects of consumption and the methods for assessing nutritional intake and status.
Developing Academic and Research Skills
Core modules
Behaviour Change, Physical Activity and Health
Learn about evidence, methods and theory in relation to changing and maintaining behaviour(s) relevant to health and well-being.
Exercise and Health Physiology
Explore how exercise physiology can be used in assessing, preventing, and treating disease and poor health, including risk assessment and exercise screening, assessing health using simple, cost-effective testing procedures and measuring physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
Applied Nutrition
This provides an opportunity to apply your knowledge of nutrition to a range of different circumstances across the lifespan.
Nutrition and Metabolism
Develop an understanding of nutrient metabolism and regulation, and through case studies, apply nutritional and healthy eating knowledge to develop dietary recommendations.
Integrated Applied and Professional Skills
Using inquiry-based learning, students will continue to learn about the research process and gain an understanding and experience of how research is conducted within the field of exercise, nutrition and health.
Optional modules
Applied Sport and Exercise Physiology
This module outlines, theoretically and practically, how bouts of physical exercise alter the body’s structures and functions and how these concepts can be applied to training to enhance exercise tolerance and sport performance.
Practical Applications in Sport and Exercise Psychology
In this module, students develop the principles from Foundations in Sport and Exercise Psychology and relate them to sport, coaching, management and exercise contexts.
Sociology of Sport, Health and the Body
Explore the fundamental concepts across the sociologies of sport, health, and the body, including emotion, physical culture, vulnerable bodies and why we work out.
Optional year-long work placement. If you are not taking a placement, you will progress directly to your final year in year three.
Core modules
Current Topics in Sport and Exercise Nutrition
Aetiology and Management of Disease
Starting with a review of the research techniques involved, emphasis is placed on the aetiological roles of physical activity / exercise and nutrition and how they are used to manage the disease.
Applied Topics in Exercise Nutrition and Health
Explore the current topics in nutrition and health through group discussions, guest lectures, debates, workshops, and journal clubs. You'll also develop your professional skills by enhancing your communications methods for health promotion, applying good clinical practice and studying current legislation.
Sport Project and Dissertation
You will produce original and independent work in a specialist area of sport science, coaching, exercise science or sport and leisure management, depending on your focus.
Optional modules
Contemporary Issues in the Sociology of Sport: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
This module seeks to situate sport within a broad consideration of global processes, practices and consequences.
Sport, Exercise and the Brain
You'll explore how psychological factors, such as self-control, affect exercise adherence and sporting performance. Additionally, you will examine how physical activity and exercise affect psychophysiological outcomes, such as cognitive function and mental health.
Strength, Power and Endurance for Sport and Exercise
The module typically focuses on six topics related to applied exercise physiology and strength and conditioning research.
Talent Development in Sport
This module will explore a critical view of the role of talent development in sport, focusing on the psychosocial, environmental, and personal factors that can influence the talent development process.
Child and Adolescent Growth, Health and Performance
This module will describe and critically evaluate the processes of growth and development in humans and the potential impact of these on the current (and future) health and performance of the growing child and adolescent.
Advanced Topics in Sport and Exercise Psychology
Students will become familiar with selected areas such as motivational climate, athletic identity, mental toughness, psychology of injury and morality in sport. The emphasis of this module will be placed on current primary research.
Challenging Critical Issues in Sport
You'll analyse complex problems such as sports injury, drug use in sport and inequality and develop potential solutions using positive social changes.
Hormone and Immune Function in Sport and Exercise
This module will introduce you to the endocrine and immune systems, exploring how they operate as separate entities and looking at areas where they overlap. Using this knowledge, you will then be introduced to exercise immunology and endocrinology, considering the physiological and molecular mechanisms that determine the function of both systems.
Don’t just take our word for it, hear from our students themselves
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How you’re taught
Contact hours
Year 1 - lectures/seminars/workshops (26%) and independent study (74%)
Year 2 - lectures/seminars/workshops (24%) and independent study (76%)
Year 3 - lectures/seminars/workshops (18%) and independent study (82%)
A placement year may be taken between year 2 and year 3 of study
How you’re assessed
Year 1 - coursework (33%), written (40%) and practical (27%)
Year 2 - coursework (50%), written (42%) and practical (8%)
Year 3 - coursework (49%), written (31%) and practical (20%)
A placement year may be taken between year 2 and year 3 of study
Careers and employability
Your career development
The number of people with physical inactivity and poor nutrition is rising. This means that the roles of the following are gaining an increasingly high profile:
- exercise
- physical activity
- nutrition in health promotion.
The number of jobs in health related industries is also increasing. Our recent graduates have secured roles at companies including:
- The NHS
- Nutracheck
- BUPA
- Bluecrest Health Screening
- Nuffield Health
- Nottingham Forest Football Club
- Healthy Action
- Derby City Council
- DW Sports Ltd
- Waitrose
Other roles that this course could lead to include:
- health development / promotion officer
- nutrition / healthy eating adviser
- media health journalism or work within public interest organisations and charities.
Other roles that this course could lead to include:
- health development / promotion officer
- nutrition / healthy eating adviser
- media health journalism or work within public interest organisations and charities.
They have gone into a wide variety of job roles, including:
- Dietetic Assistant Practitioner
- Health Adviser
- Health and Wellbeing Coach
- Healthy Lifestyle Practitioner
- Nutritional Analyst
- online sports nutrition adviser
- health promotion adviser
- personal trainer
On successful completion of the course, many graduates choose to undertake further study on one of our Masters-level courses or MPhil and PhD research degrees.
Placements
NTU is one of the most employment-focused universities. Increasingly, employers want to recruit graduates who have real-world work experience. That’s why all of our courses, across every subject area, offer you a work experience opportunity. Our experts help build and support your future with a range of career programmes and events.
On this course, after your second year, you will have the opportunity to take a year's work placement (sandwich placement). This will give you a chance to gain vital experience and put your knowledge into practice. You're also twice as likely to secure a graduate job within six months if you take a work placement.
Our recent Engineering students have taken placements across a wide range of companies, including Nottingham Forest Academy and Nova Centurion Swimming Club. They secured varied roles such as Trainee Sports Scientists, Performance Analysts and Marketing Assistants.
You'll be supported and assessed throughout your placement year and will write a reflective report and diary at the end of your placement. When you complete your placement, you will be eligible to receive an additional award of a Diploma in Professional Practice.
Find out more about work placements.
Throughout your time with us, you will have many opportunities through placement and consultancy projects to put theory into practice, gain valuable experience, and develop the skills that will prepare you for the career of your choice.
Currently, over twenty-five health and related organisations support this course, providing you with invaluable industry experience, including:
- Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food
- The East Midlands Platform for Health and Wellbeing
- Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Slimming World
- Nottingham City Council.
What our students say
"I designed and ran a health promotion campaign for students on nutrition, and the positive feedback we received helped me to think about different career options. I also undertook a work placement which gave me invaluable experience of what it is like to work in a different setting and how my knowledge can benefit me in a job."
Victoria Evans, BSc (Hons) Exercise, Nutrition and Health
NTU Enterprise
You'll also have the opportunity to turn your ideas into a viable business with help from NTU Enterprise, NTU's purpose-built Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise, a support centre to help students create, develop and grow their businesses.
Campus and facilities
Where will I study?
Teaching events are held across Clifton Campus and include interactive workshops in spaces specifically designed for collaborative, hands-on learning.
We have the stimulating and creative environment needed to equip students with the knowledge and transferable skills to put them ahead of the graduate crowd. We provide first-class facilities that enhance the quality of our education and push the boundaries of our research; these include:
The University has a wide range of sporting and health related facilities across three of our campuses. There are:
- sport coaching
- sports injury clinics
- fitness suites
- specialist facilities
- more than 40 sports clubs on offer.
Sport, Exercise and Health Physiology Laboratories
These are fully equipped with specialist facilities that provide a high-quality, dynamic learning environment to cater for different types of exercise testing and physical activity.
British Olympic Association (BOA) Approved Environmental Chamber
The chamber enables us to simulate climates anywhere in the world, from Everest to Egypt. Olympic athletes have used the chamber for acclimatisation to extreme competition environments.
The Culinary Skills Teaching Kitchen and the Lee Westwood Centre Nutrition Suite
The Teaching Kitchen and Nutrition Suite allows students to develop their cooking skills and deliver Cook and Eat sessions.
IT, Sport Psychology and Management Suites
The School also features IT, Sport Psychology and Management Suites used for match analysis, statistical, nutritional and coaching analysis, and a host of sporting clubs and societies to get involved in.
Entry requirements
- 112 - 120 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications, including A-level equivalent a PE or Science subject*
- GCSEs – English, Maths and two sciences grade C/4; and
- Complete an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check
If you are applying with a BTEC Extended Certificate (previously BTEC Subsidiary Diploma), you will also need an A-level in a science subject or equivalent*.
* We will accept Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Sport Studies or Psychology
To find out what qualifications have tariff points, please use our tariff calculator.
Contextual offers
A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer; we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU offers a student experience like no other. This approach helps us find students who have the potential to succeed here but may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university. Find out how we assess your application.
Other qualifications and experience
We may also consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning. This may be for year one entry or beyond the beginning of a course where applicable, for example, into year 2. Our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available for this route.
Getting in touch
If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form.
- 120 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications, including A-level equivalent of a PE or Science subject*
- GCSEs – English, Maths and two sciences grade C/4; and
- Complete an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check
If you apply with a BTEC Extended Certificate (previously BTEC Subsidiary Diploma), you will also need an A-level in a science subject or equivalent*.
* We will accept Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Sport Studies or Psychology
International qualifications
We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:
Undergraduate preparation courses (Foundation)
If you don’t yet meet our entry requirements, we offer Foundation courses through our partner Nottingham Trent International College (NTIC), based on our City Campus:
English language entry requirements
You can meet our language requirements by completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:
Advanced standing (starting your undergraduate degree in year 2 or 3)
You may be able to start your undergraduate course in year 2 or 3 based on what you have studied before. This decision would be made in accordance with our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy.
Would you like some advice on your study plans?
Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.
- Complete this simple form to keep in touch with the International Office.
Fees and funding
Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.
Getting in touch
For more advice and guidance, contact our Student Financial Support Service on telephone +44 (0)115 848 2494.
What do the course fees cover?
Your course fees cover the cost of studies and include loads of great benefits, such as the use of our library, support from our expert Employability team, and free use of the IT equipment across our campuses.
Library books
Most study modules recommend one or more core textbooks, which most students purchase. Book costs vary, and further information is available in the University’s bookshop. Our libraries provide a good supply of essential textbooks, journals and materials (many of which you can access online) – meaning you may not need to purchase as many books as you might think! There may also be a supply of second-hand books available for purchase from previous year students.
Placements
If you're undertaking a placement year, you'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst on placement. Many of our placement students earn a salary whilst on placement, which can help cover these living costs.
Print and copy costs
The University allocates an annual printing and copying allowance of £20 depending on the course you are studying. For more details about costs for additional print and copying required over and above the annual allowance, please see the Printing, photocopying and scanning information on the Library website.
Students will also be required to pay additional costs for printing, poster preparation and final dissertation copies in their final year - estimated costs of approximately £20 - £30.
There will be a £30 exam fee for students taking REPS qualifications.
Tuition fees
Tuition fees are payable for each year that you are at the University. The tuition fees for the second and subsequent years of your undergraduate course may increase in line with inflation and as specified by the UK government. See our fees.
Scholarships
We offer scholarships of up to 50% of your tuition fee. You can apply for your scholarship when you have the offer to study at NTU.
Living costs
Get advice on the cost of living as an international student in Nottingham and how to budget:
Paying fees
Find out about advanced payments, instalment plan options and how to make payments securely to the University:
Would you like some advice on your study plans?
Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.
- Complete this simple form to keep in touch with the International Office.
What do the course fees cover?
Your course fees cover the cost of studies and include loads of great benefits, such as the use of our library, support from our expert Employability team, and free use of the IT equipment across our campuses.
Library books
Most study modules recommend one or more core textbooks, which most students purchase. Book costs vary, and further information is available in the University’s bookshop. Our libraries provide a good supply of essential textbooks, journals and materials (many of which you can access online) – meaning you may not need to purchase as many books as you might think! There may also be a supply of second-hand books available for purchase from previous year students.
Placements
If you're undertaking a placement year, you'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst on placement. Many of our placement students earn a salary whilst on placement, which can help cover these living costs.
Print and copy costs
The University allocates an annual printing and copying allowance of £20 depending on the course you are studying. For more details about costs for additional print and copying required over and above the annual allowance please see the Printing, photocopying and scanning information on the Library website.
Students will also be required to pay additional costs for printing, poster preparation and final dissertation copies in their final year - estimated costs of approximately £20 - £30.
There will be a £30 exam fee for students taking REPS qualifications.
How to apply
How to apply
Ready to join us? Then apply as soon as you can. Just click the Apply button at the top of the page and follow the application instructions. Make sure you check the entry requirements above carefully before you do.
Writing your application and personal statement.
Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only decide based on what you tell us. So include your qualifications and grades, including resits or predicted grades.
Your personal statement is a really important part of your application. It’s your chance to convince us why we should offer you a place! You’ve got 4,000 characters to impress us. Make sure you use them to show how your skills and qualities are relevant to the course(s) you’re applying for. For more hints and tips, please look at our page on how to write a good personal statement.
Keeping up-to-date
After applying, we’ll send you important emails throughout the application process, so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.
You can get more information and advice about applying to NTU on our Your Application page. Good luck with your application!
You can apply for this course through UCAS. If you are not applying to any other UK universities, you can apply directly to us on our NTU applicant portal.
Application advice
Apply early so you have enough time to prepare – processing times for Student visas can vary, for example. After applying, we'll send you important emails throughout the application process, so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.
Writing your personal statement
Be honest, thorough, and persuasive – we can only make a decision about your application based on what you tell us:
Would you like some advice on your study plans?
Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.
- Complete this simple form to keep in touch with the International Office.
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