High praise for a program at the University of Windsor.
SportBusiness has ranked the Master of Human Kinetics program in Sport Management 21st in the world, second best in Canada.
Ohio University's Master of Sports Administration was ranked number one.
The University of Ottawa's Masters of Human Kinetics in Sports Management was 17th, just under two points higher than Windsor in the ranking.
The rankings are based on two surveys, completed by course leaders and alumni who graduated three years prior to publication –meaning the 2021 edition is based on responses from the classes of 2018. Each course is ultimately given a score out of 100 based on a weighted average of results from both the graduate and course leader surveys.
The report from the global consulting and analysis firm ranked the top 40 postgraduate sports business courses in the world.
"This year we scored third highest for quality of teaching and fifth highest for best value for the money. We scored well on extracurricular support and industry networking, among others," says Jess Dixon, professor in the Department of Kinesiology.
Graduates of the program go on to work in a variety of sport sectors, including with professional sports franchises and national/provincial/territorial sport governing bodies, sporting goods and apparel companies, municipal parks, recreation and culture departments, sport agencies, and academia.
Dixon says the results really validates what they're doing.
"Based on the results, the quality of teaching we were ranked third in the world and the amount of support they get from our department in terms of placement options, career support and advice was also among the very best in the world," he says.
Dixon says the opportunities are endless because the skills the students develop could take them into professional sports or even a municipal parks and recreation department.
"In between those two extremes you have people working for national/provincial/territorial sport governing bodies, in some cases international federations," he says. "We're talking about Hockey Canada and Ontario Soccer. Then international organizations like FIFA or the International Olympic Committee."
Dixon says this ranking also helps with recruitment.
"Certainly helps with our students when they're looking for jobs, there's a little bit of brand recognition there now after 10 years of being ranked in that group. It sort of validates a lot of the decisions that we're making with respect to curricula and the kinds of things we're doing in and out of the classroom," he adds.
The University of Windsor also launched a new Sports Management under graduate program in the past year for high school graduates interested in pursing a career in the sport industry.