MSc in Sport Sciences
Groningen, Netherlands
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 May 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
01 Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 24,200 / per year
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* Dutxh, EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA students
Introduction
How can you identify the top athletes of the future? How do you optimize athletic performance and prevent injuries? What influence does physical activity have on a child's development?
How do people use vision to control their actions?
The two-year Master's programme is meant for students with a scientific fascination for sport. You will study sports performance and physical activity from multiple perspectives, using theories about cognition, psychology and physiology. This could sport on a recreational or an athlete level.
As a student of this programme, you will acquire an advanced understanding of issues in the field of sports sciences, both applied and fundamental. You will practice in measuring and analyzing sports performance and gain familiarity with research methods and advanced statistics. Also, you will learn to develop optimal programmes to teach and train sport-related abilities and skills.
The programme is concentrated on four research areas:
- Physical activity and cognition in children.
- Talent identification and development.
- Perception, action and decision making in sports
- Performance analysis and optimization in (top)sports and how to prevent injuries.
Why study this programme in Groningen?
- Unique MSc Sport Sciences programme in the Netherlands
- Comprehensive 2-year science-based program with a multidisciplinary approach to studying sport
- Strong link between fundamental and applied research in sports settings
- 100% English taught
Curriculum
Year 1
The programme starts with a specialization course to gain a better understanding of the development, learning and optimization of sports skills and sports performance.
Other compulsory courses are:
- Philosophy of science and ethics
- Advanced statistics: deepening one's methodological and statistical knowledge
In addition to the compulsory courses, you have a lot of freedom within the first year to choose your individual study programme (30 EC).
Courses
- Development, perception and action in sports and exercise (5 EC)
- Mechanisms of motor function and cognition in ageing (5 EC, optional)
- Motor Control (5 EC, optional)
- Neuromechanics (5 EC, optional)
- Rehabilitation & Functional Recovery: Practice & patient-oriented research (5 EC, optional)
- Academic Assignment(s) (optional)
- Master monitor (5 EC)
- Advanced Statistics (5 EC)
- Clinical Mobility Lab (5 EC, optional)
- Disorders in motor control and current theories about rehabilitation processes (5 EC, optional)
- Interventions targeting motor function and cognition in ageing (5 EC, optional)
- Physiology of Training and Exercise (5 EC, optional)
- Talent and performance optimization (5 EC)
- Introduction to Dynamical Systems (5 EC, optional)
- Perception and Action (5 EC, optional)
- Sport and Talent (5 EC, optional)
- Review article (10 EC)
- Big data in Sport Sciences and Human Movement Sciences (5 EC)
- Philosophy of Science and Ethics (5 EC)
- Signal Acquisition and Analysis (5 EC, optional)
Year 2
- Master's Graduation Project
- Possibilities to further one's professional and personal development (15 EC), by following additional course units, developing and executing an academic assignment, for example in a professional or an educational context.
Courses
- Master Graduation Project (40 EC)
Curriculum
During the first year of the Master's programme in Sport Sciences, you follow specialization course units to gain a better understanding of the development, learning and optimisation of sports skills and sports performance.
Course 1: Development, perception and action in sports and exercise Course 2: Talent and performance optimization
Alongside the specialization, the first year includes two compulsory course units (Advanced Statistics and Philosophy of Science and Ethics) and a profiling part. In this part, you can select course units that are offered by the Department of Human Movement Sciences. Alternatively, you can select external course units or carry out an academic assignment, which could involve gaining teaching or applied research experience, doing consultancy work or writing a scientific article for publication. During your studies, you are expected to work intensively with students and lecturers in various different ways. The main focus of the second year of the Master's programme is the master's graduation project. You can do this internally, externally or abroad. In your research project, you demonstrate that you are able to conduct scientific research in a specific field and that you are able to present your findings in a scientific article.
Programme options
- Sport, Learning and Performance (specialization)
Study abroad
- Study abroad is optional
- For an average of 20 weeks
- Maximum of 40 EC
Admissions
Career Opportunities
Job prospects
As a graduate, you will have developed a professional and academic attitude that will enable you to work independently and further develop in an area of human movement science. There are many opportunities in the field of movement, health, healthy ageing and lifestyle(s), rehabilitation, and sports. Potential careers include doing research at a university (PhD), in a hospital or in a company.
Job examples
- Advisor. Scientific advisor at sports associations or Olympic federation
- Developer. Develop training and exercise programs for ergonomic, orthopaedic, or educational institutions
- Embedded scientist. Embedded scientist for a professional sports team/club
- Researcher
- Teacher/lecturer. Teacher/Lecturer of sport and exercise courses in Higher Education
- Policy Officer. Government employee dealing with sports, health, and welfare policies