It aims to enable participants to prescribe training advice for different age groups; and to expose participants to a wide range of specialities relevant to sport and exercise.

A M.Sc. degree is awarded following the passing of written, oral and clinical examinations and the acceptance of a dissertation based on practical research work. Marks are allocated on the basis of 67% continuous assessment and end of year written examinations and 33% dissertation.

The course will give participants a thorough grounding in the basic sciences required for sports medicine. Workshops aim to provide the practical skills in history taking and musculoskeletal examination; in the laboratory you will learn the basics of physiological assessment of athletes. The completion of the MSc project write up represents an introduction to the scientific process of high quality experimental design, methodology, data analysis and scientific report writing.

No course can claim to cover every aspect of sports medicine and participants are asked to read widely around material presented in lectures and workshops. In our experience Doctors are skilled in clinical history taking and medical examination, but often have insufficient handling skills and knowledge of musculoskeletal examination. Physiotherapists may have more experience in musculoskeletal examination, especially handling skills, but frequently have knowledge deficits in medical differential diagnosis. All groups do not usually appreciate the relevance of their basic undergraduate clinical anatomy and physiology and are usually inexperienced in basic experimental design, quality data collection and analysis of results.