A sister sports leadership program

Today we were hosted by David, Shane, and Dierdre from University of Ulster’s Sports Management program. We presented to a group of undergraduates who are studying sport development. This group was the most similar we’ve seen in terms of values around what sport education should be. They are interested in promoting education based on leadership rather than management, which would mean that students are focused on values and community impact than on management and the business side of sports. This was exciting because the University of Ulster is trying to maintain its reputation as THE leading university in sport education.

After the presentation we had a lengthy conversation with David, who oversees graduate program, and Dierdre who oversees some of the undergrad over some courses or a full degree program out of our MSL curriculum. Dierdre is really interested in getting sport management students and athletes in service and volunteering and felt that our programs and Master of Sport Leadership program would benefit their students.

Incidentally, Dierdre is the coach of the men’s semi-professional basketball team that operates out of the university. This is a unique model in that they have semi-pro status even though it’s at a university level. She has shown her commitment to partnering with the US in that she invites former Division 1 basketball players join her team and assist with community outreach efforts as part of completing their Masters program at Ulster. Both David and Dierdre expressed interest in expanding their programs, but that they haven’t had the capacity to take on large increases in student enrollment. This is where our MSL seems so valuable to them, because they’re just getting into the idea of online education platforms, and are interested in providing courses from both sides of the pond that would combine the best parts of our programs in some type of student exchange program.

Now off to dinner at the world famous Deane’s restaurant.