New Brighton sports science degree receives prestige accreditation

University of Brighton’s newly-launched Strength and Conditioning BSc(Hons) has received professional standard endorsements from a key sector agency.

Within weeks of the first students taking up the new degree in September, the course was endorsed by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) with regard to two professional standards: Strength and Conditioning Trainer Award; and Strength and Conditioning Graduate Coach Award.

University of Brighton’s Strength and Conditioning BSc(Hons) is not only one of very few degrees in the UK to achieve this double professional acknowledgement from CIMSPA, but is the third sports-related degree at the university to achieve similar recognition, alongside its Sport Management and Sport Coaching degrees.

Brighton’s sports-related courses are ranked in the UK Top 10, as well as the top 100 globally by the QS World University Rankings 2022. Teaching and coaching staff are experts who have worked – and continue to work – with organisations including the Lawn Tennis Association and the English Institute of Sport, England basketball, England Netball and Great Britain’s Paralympic cycling team, as well as individual champion athletes such as Dame Sarah Storey.

The university offers a suite of specialist facilities which include a new strength and conditioning suite, labs that are accredited by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), plus extensive top-quality sporting facilities. From 2024, meanwhile, students will be based at a purpose-built new state-of-the-art facility at the Falmer campus.

Flo Pietzsch, Senior Lecturer in the university’s School of Sport and Health Sciences – and Course Leader of the Strength and Conditioning degree – said: “We are delighted to receive endorsement against two highly detailed professional standards. The achievement builds upon the long-standing expertise and quality in our sport and exercise science provision, and will ensure that our future graduates are fully prepared for employment or further study in the subject.”

Helen Hiley, Education Manager for CIMSPA, said: “The ambition of CIMSPA and the Sport and Physical Activity Professional Development Board is to create a recognised and respected profession everyone wants to be part of. We appreciate and value the University of Brighton’s commitment to support us to achieve this ambition.”