Sport and Exercise Science

Sport and exercise science is the applied scientific study of the body in motion and of how physical activity, training, and exercise influence human health, performance, and wellbeing. It draws on physiology, biomechanics, psychology, nutrition science, and sports medicine to develop a comprehensive understanding of how the body responds and adapts to the demands of exercise, and how those responses can be measured, optimised, and applied in sport, clinical, and public health contexts. It is a discipline that is simultaneously rigorous in its scientific foundations and directly relevant to practice across sport, health, and physical education.

At Southampton Solent University, this programme combines a foundation year with a sandwich year in industry and work placement, making it one of the most accessible and professionally intensive pathways into the discipline available. The foundation year provides a thorough introduction to the scientific and health-related foundations of the degree before the main programme begins, making it genuinely accessible to students from diverse educational backgrounds. The sandwich year gives you extended professional experience in a sport, exercise, or health organisation, applying your scientific knowledge in a real-world setting and building the professional profile that employers in this field value.

The programme gives you access to specialist facilities for physiological testing, biomechanical analysis, and performance assessment, alongside the theoretical and research training that graduate-level scientific practice requires.

A typical entry tariff of 104 points reflects the programme's broad accessibility within a course that builds genuine scientific competence progressively.

Graduates work as sport and exercise scientists, strength and conditioning coaches, sports therapists, fitness instructors, health promotion professionals, and in a wide range of applied sport and health roles. Many continue to postgraduate study in sport science, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, or related health sciences, and the sandwich year often opens direct employment routes with placement providers.