“I’m one of eight students on the first coaching and analysis course to be fully based at Wembley. As an ardent football fan and part-time youth coach, with a BA in community development, it’s been amazing to learn about the game at the home of English football.
“So far I’ve taken two modules: one on analysis of the game and how analysts work at a professional club, the other on coaching philosophy, self-reflection and shaping one’s own coaching behaviour and philosophy to reflect others’ life experiences. We’re asked to think about ourselves and our colleagues on the course, analyse how different teams like to play and how we can translate our behaviour off the pitch to players on the pitch and bring success through that. It’s surprising how many external factors elite coaches have to be aware of, such as a player’s own psychology or the behaviours of backroom staff.
“This term we’re focusing on how to transfer coaching philosophy to the pitch and hope to analyse data collected from professional football fixtures. Another module involves writing a report about our individual strengths and weaknesses and the most suitable employment opportunities we can see available for ourselves. The university helps us find short-term club placements that best reflect our profile. I am compiling a dossier of my own best World XI based on statistical justification for assessment and also writing a dissertation on how coaches get the best out of players.
“In a packed programme, I’ve been shocked by how reflective coaches are, the depth of their post-match analysis, the numbers of analysts employed and what a key role analysis plays in a coach’s approach to players and tactics. It helps that we use the same data analysis software as premiership clubs.
“One challenge is not being able to properly compare your analysis to that of other students because of social distancing. Provided that Covid doesn’t further interfere, we may take part in a residential meeting with students on the same course at the university’s Manchester City campus. As for transferrable skills, I’ve got used to writing down how I’ve behaved towards players. It’s the sort of self-reflective skill you can transfer to any leadership situation.
Not going to the league? Here are four other unusual postgrad courses for 2021
Study the world of espionage
Speakers such as former GCHQ director Sir David Omand and former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers are among highlights enjoyed by students on King’s College London’s MA in intelligence and international security course.
“You can’t get this calibre of speaker at the scale we offer elsewhere,” says course leader Huw Dylan. “We try to dispel myths like the idea of all-powerful agencies spying on everyone; students find reality can be much more exciting.”
Based in the Department of War Studies – one of the few such departments in the world – the course explores what intelligence is, its relationship with the democratic state, the definitions of success and failure, the art of deception, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, and all the key ethical arguments. Regional specialisms are also offered, covering Africa, Asia, Russia and elsewhere.
Become an ethnobotanist
So you want to be an ethnobotanist? Anthropology graduate Kay Lewis-Jones says joining the University of Kent’s one-year taught ethnobotany MSc led first to a PhD and then her current job, which entails improving people’s engagement wth the environment. Ethnobotany is the study of relationships between people and plants. “The course fuses natural and social science,” says Lewis-Jones. “It’s taught me how to identify plants and their core families, the basics of ecology and botany, plus vital field skills such as how to preserve specimens good enough to be archived.”
It also covers the politics of botany, field trips to eco-centres such as the Millennium Seed Bank, and overseas research. The course partners with Kew Gardens and the Eden Project, whose networks can open doors to environmental careers.
Understand why we do what we do online
We hear a lot about cybercrime in the news, but what motivates people’s behaviour online? A one-year MSc in cyberpsychology at Nottingham Trent University challenges students to investigate how people navigate and use cyberspace. How and why, say, do individuals respond to and share fake news?
The course enrols up to 30 students annually, who are asked to submit their own research topic, says course leader Jens Binder. “We get some interesting proposals! For instance, how gamers are affected by ‘loot boxes’ [virtual treasure chests of unknown items that players pay for]; or how people engage with dating sites,” he says.
You will also develop your knowledge of cyberpsychology theory and practice, and explore the ethical, cultural, political and legal issues arising in cyberpsychological practice and research as part of the course.
Monitor the health of priceless paintings
Passionate about art, know how to draw, but have a scientific rather than fine arts background? If so, you could be a candidate for the Courtauld Institute of Art’s three-year postgrad diploma in easel painting conservation.
“Our students need no prior knowledge of conservation, just an interest,” says Dr Austin Nevin head of conservation. “We seek scientists or scientifically-minded people .”
The course takes on just five students a year, but “when they finish they tend to go straight into jobs at leading museums or private practice.”
The course’s interdisciplinary nature brings together art history, fine arts and natural sciences, with a syllabus split between practical work and lectures, and reading and seminars – focusing on technical study – to understand how paintings have been made and how best to treat and preserve them.
