| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-09-01 | 2023-08-01 |
| 2024-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
Course Description
The aim of this M.Sc course is to allow participants further their career progression in musculoskeletal and sports and exercise medicine by enhancing basic background knowledge in anatomy, exercise physiology, sports and exercise science; and, in addition develop high quality practical and critical thinking skills in musculoskeletal assessment, rehabilitation, exercise testing and training prescription in health and disease. Students will achieve this through a tiered process starting in Semester 1 with three basic science modules in Anatomy, Exercise Physiology; and Research Methods. In anatomy students will enhance their knowledge of musculoskeletal and neuroanatomy through instructor lead pro-section based practical classes; and in lectures revisit the organisation of the central and peripheral nervous systems. In the exercise physiology module, learning focuses on the key systems for sports and physical activity; energy systems, muscle physiology, cardiovascular and respiratory systems; and whole-body hormonal and homeostatic responses to physical activity, exercise and training. As this course will be evidence-based, students will critically appraise the literature in the area of sports and exercise medicine at all stages of the course. The research methods module in Semester 1 of each academic year will develop a students’ ability to critically evaluate the latest research in order to keep up to date with the latest clinical advances in the discipline, enable the student to formulate a research question and develop skills necessary for high quality research project design, from statistical modelling, ethics application, power analysis, high quality data collection, data handling, statistical analysis; and finally scientific report writing worthy of submission as a journal article or critical review. The research methods module runs in parallel and supports the research dissertation component.
In the second semester the focus shifts to clinical aspects of sports and exercise medicine, such as; musculoskeletal assessment skills, rehabilitation protocols; aspects of team and individual athlete care within different sports; and physical activity and population health. Critical thinking skills are developed in instructor lead clinical case scenario-based teaching and student led seminars reviewing the current literature to demonstrate the scope of problems encountered in day to day care of athletes and teams, and the physically active of all ages and gender.
This M.Sc in Sports and Exercise Medicine can be completed in one or two academic years and is comprised of six taught modules (60 ECTS) and a research project (30 ECTS). In the part-time option students complete four modules in Year 1 (40ECTS) and two modules plus the research dissertation in Year 2 (20+30ECTS). All course material will wherever possible be presented in face to face lecture, workshop, seminars and practical class-based formats on campus; however, if COVID19 restrictions persist some elements of course delivery; didactic elements, student presentations and assessments may be run ‘on-line’. All students will be required to have a PC or Mac computer with large RAM capability and at least 4-6 GB storage capacity to allow use of large statistical data analysis packages such as SPSS; and, Zoom or Teams functionality in order to attend ‘live streamed’ sessions and for remote learning of ‘on-line’ course delivery.
All taught components will primarily be based on campus or delivered on-line. Therefore, Fulltime students are expected to be available on campus or ‘on-line’ for ‘live real-time’ teaching on web based remote learning systems for all our main teaching days that is at least three days a week. Similarly, part time students are also required attend campus or to be available on-line on two teaching days per week in Year 1 and one teaching day per week in Year 2. All students fulltime and part-time may be required to attend campus or ‘on-line’ on other days each semester to attend meetings with project supervisors to develop their research projects; and or extra tutorials and practical skill competency training wherever necessary.
In the one-year full-time programme there are three modules in each semester. One- year full-time students must complete three modules per semester and a research project in one year. In the two-year part-time programme students must complete two modules per semester in Year 1, and one module per semester and the their research project in Year 2. Basic science modules AN7104 (Anatomy); AN7105 (Exercise Physiology) and AN7106 (Research Methods) take place in Semester 1 of each academic year; and, clinical modules AN7107 (Sports and Exercise Medicine); AN7108 (Musculoskeletal Assessment and Rehab) and AN7109 (Exercise Science) take place in Semester 2. Two year part-time students must successfully complete four modules in Year 1 to progress to Year 2.
All students who complete six taught modules will be eligible for a Post-graduate Diploma in Sports and Exercise Medicine. In order to achieve the full exit award of MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine, students must complete all six taught modules (60 ECTS) and the research dissertation component (30 ECTS) within one year, if full-time, or two years if part-time.