Crowded Places and Public Safety Management

Entry requirements

To enter this course you should have a first or second class honours degree in a relevant discipline. Those with a level 5 qualification and/or professional experience will be considered on a case by case basis.

Each application will be considered on its merits and the final decision will be made by the course director.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

From international sporting events and concerts to world-class retail and transport hubs, mass gatherings are increasing in scale and complexity. In the current global environment, the challenges of keeping people safe are greater than ever – whether that’s planning for international mega events or dealing with the impacts of social distancing.

This course aims to provide you with the academic underpinning to analyse the features that make for best-practice planning, policy and process, so that you can go on to devise effective crowded places arrangements of your own. Graduates could work in a range of organisations with crowded places duties, including venue and stadia management, the uniformed services, private security management, and the live events, transport and retail sectors.

The course’s flexibility and delivery pattern of 4.5-day blocks enables full-time students to develop their knowledge alongside opportunities to gain practical experience. The part-time route allows those already employed in crowd safety, health and safety, and security management to balance their studies with other commitments and apply academic rigour to their practical experience.

The programme covers important legal and socio-political frameworks within crowd safety and emergency management, as well as investigating emerging technological solutions, and the contemporary safety and threat environments that impact on the sector.

The course also aims to provide an understanding of the issues that underlie many of the concerns faced by crowd safety management practitioners, such as leadership, risk management, training and exercising, multi-agency cooperation and coordination and business continuity. In particular, you will examine how these issues may be addressed in practice, with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of crowd safety management and organisational resilience.

You should advance your skills in evaluating complex situations, developing creative and innovative solutions, and implementing lessons learned. There will be opportunities to take part in training and exercises through simulated emergency scenarios in our state-of-the art, immersive Simulation Centre.

You will have the opportunity to carry out an independent piece of research of your choosing, producing an industry facing working paper of publishable quality.

As a Coventry University graduate, upon successful completion of the course you should have gained the skills you need to move your career in crowd safety management forward, both in the UK and overseas. This includes the development of transferable skills and knowledge dealing with risk, problem solving, decision making under uncertainty, team and leadership skills.

Information for international students

This course requires IELTS of 6.5 overall, with no component lower than 5.5. Pre-sessional English is available if required.

Fees and funding