Strength & Conditioning MSc

Why study Strength and Conditioning MSc at Middlesex University?

This degree is the ideal sports and exercise science route for students who aspire to work with elite athletes. Learn how to plan and deliver training programmes, monitor progress and deliver feedback to coaches. Being a fully recognised profession in elite sport, almost all professional clubs now employ a minimum of one strength and conditioning coach. This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to work with athletes in any sport and of any age.

Learn from noted academics who also work with professional athletes and clubs. This course will facilitate your accreditation from relevant strength and conditioning awarding bodies (NSCA and UKSCA) and provide supervised work experience with high-level athletes (for example, in professional football, rugby, and with Olympic and Paralympic athletes). Alongside designing and implementing evidence-based, sport-specific training programmes, you will master a number of exercise techniques, including Olympic lifting, speed agility and plyometrics. You will also develop research and data analysis skills, and the ability to present findings to a team.

You will gain experience as a strength and conditioning coach and scientist through our work-placement module. In our partnership with Saracens Rugby Club, you’ll have access to the fantastic resources at StoneX Stadium, including the brand new £23 million redevelopment project of the West Stand which offers state-of-the-art facilities as a top educational and high performance centre for teaching and research excellence. With some of the most advanced equipment in the UK, you will be able to utilise the new specialist spaces, simulation suites, specialist labs, plus much more. You will build invaluable industry contacts and we maintain contact with many of our graduates who have gone on to work in professional sports.

Course highlights

• Based in London, we are surrounded by the greatest density of top sports clubs and organisations in the UK
• We believe that all our graduates should be high achievers both practically and academically. As a result, we actively encourage students to publish their dissertation through peer-reviewed journals and conferences
• This course will facilitate your accreditation from relevant strength and conditioning awarding bodies and provide supervised work experience with high-level athletes
• The majority of our staff are active sports professionals involved in coaching and sport performance. Able to maintain close links with the industry, they can ensure current professional practice informs your studies
• Small class sizes allow you to receive the personal attention required to thrive in your studies.

About your course

What will you study on the MSc Strength and Conditioning?

As part of the course you will carry out physiological and biomechanical assessments of athletes and interpret the data so as to monitor and tailor training interventions. You will also develop research skills through both a critical review of literature and the undertaking of laboratory or field-based investigations.

The programme can be studied over one year full-time or part-time over two or three years. Lectures take be pre-recorded and online, with attendance on campus occurring during the first Wednesday of every month from 10.00am to 5.00pm, to go through laboratory and practical content.

Please download the course specification for Strength and Conditioning MSc for more information (PDF).

Student support

We offer lots of support to help you while you're studying including financial advice, wellbeing, mental health, and disability support.

Additional needs

We'll support you if you have additional needs such as sensory impairment or dyslexia. And if you want to find out whether Middlesex is the right place for you before you apply, get in touch with our Disability and Dyslexia team.

Wellness

Our specialist teams will support your mental health. We have free individual counselling sessions, workshops, support groups and useful guides.

Work while you study

Our Middlesex Unitemps branch will help you find work that fits around uni and your other commitments. We have hundreds of student jobs on campus that pay the London Living Wage and above. Visit the Middlesex Unitemps page.

Careers

How can the MSc Strength and Conditioning support your career?

This Strength and Conditioning course is for students who would like to develop key skills, acquire a body of knowledge, and gain exposure to the frontiers of the subject. A Strength and Conditioning degree opens the doors to a number of exciting career paths, with excellent career progression opportunities.

With the ever-increasing focus for the sporting world to achieve the best results possible, sport scientists are in demand. Middlesex University has strong links with employers. Opportunities exist as a strength and conditioning coach with the governing bodies of most sporting organisations, as well as with organisations such as the English Institute of Sport. Graduates will also be capable of establishing their own consultancy business or progressing on to additional study.

Fees and funding

We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.

Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.

Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.

At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.