Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology

Entry requirements

• Applicants should hold a bachelor’s degree ((NFQ Level 8) with at least a second-class honours, grade 2 (2:2) in a relevant discipline. Preference will be given to graduates of Sports Science, Physical Education, Nutrition, Physiotherapy, anatomy or human biology.

• Relevant work experience will also be an advantage.

Other Entry Considerations:

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet the standard entry requirements, as long as you can show that you have the knowledge, skills, and experience needed for the programme.

At UL, we value all kinds of learning and support different ways to qualify through our Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy.

Checklist of Documents:

• *Academic transcripts and certificates, translated if needed.
  • UL graduates only need to provide their student ID.
• Copy of your birth certificate or passport
• Copy of your CV
• Copy of any membership of psychological societies and CPD workshop attendance
• Supporting statement

Guidelines on Completing your Application

• To make sure we can review your application quickly, please:
  • Upload all documents. Your application can’t be reviewed until we have all the documents on the checklist.
  • Title the documents you are uploading. For example, "Personal Statement", "Undergraduate Transcript", "Postgraduate Transcript", "English Language Certificate" etc.
• *If you are waiting to graduate, submit your application with the documents you have to date, you don’t need to have finished final exams before applying.

Months of entry

September

Course content

QS Ranked Top 100 worldwide (Sport related programmes)

This MSc programme is dedicated to providing a thorough grounding in the knowledge and application of psychological principles to sport, exercise and performance settings in order to enhance wellbeing and performance. There is a demand for training in this field for those whose ambition is to work in high performance sport settings. In Ireland and the UK, many of those trained in sport psychology have undertaken roles as performance directors, professional sport coaches and sport management.

The programme is currently seeking accreditation by the Psychological Society of Ireland. As such, it is open to those with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. For those with a degree in a different subject, we have the MSc Mental Skills and Mental Health in Sports and Exercise. The two programmes are taught together.

The MSc aims to:

• Provide a learner-focused and connected curriculum to enable students to develop their capacity to think critically and acquire a broad set of attributes as identified by the UL as knowledgeable, proactive, innovative, responsible, articulate and collaborative.
• Extend the traditional remit of sport psychology by focusing on performance restoration, resilience and mental health, rather than exclusively targeting performance enhancement.
• Enhance the understanding of mental health challenges in sport contexts using a positive psychology approach.
• Develop a multidisciplinary mode of graduate enquiry coupled with an ethical scientist-practitioner basis.
• Lead the provision of postgraduate training in this evolving field of Performance psychology.
• Provide stage one of the recognition process for sport and exercise psychologists for PSI and BPS.
• Include the appropriate skills to enable graduates to develop a case study submission as part of their application for professional membership of the Irish Institute of Sport.

Information for international students

• Postgraduate Entry Requirements for International Students
• English Language Requirements

Email ULGlobal@ul.ie for further information.

Fees and funding