A year of hard work has paid off for graduates on one of the world’s top sports management courses, taught partly at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).
Students from the CIES International MA in Management, Law and Humanities in Sport were presented with their degrees in the stunning surroundings of Neuchatel Castle in Switzerland.
Former Olympic rower Jean-Christophe Rolland – who won Gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and is now president of World Rowing Federation - congratulated the class of 2015.
Students from all over the world study the CIES International MA, a nine-month, full-time course taught at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), SDA Bocconi, in Milan then the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland.
Alumni have gone on to get jobs in a wide variety of top sporting organisations, including the International Olympic Committee, Adidas, Sauber Formula 1 Team, MLS and UEFA.
Graduate Charles Fremont, from Canada, described the course as “the experience of a lifetime”.
He said: “I have to admit that, before starting the course, despite finding these topics very interesting for my own personal culture, I could not see how such material would actually be useful in my career.
“My studies at DMU convinced me otherwise. Indeed, most of the issues that the sport industry faces today have deep roots that go back to the origins of modern sport, and I now believe that a good manager in the sport world has to understand where sport comes from in order to see where it is heading.”
Marianne Cornejo, of Brazil, said: “The course was intense, challenging and exciting but the support from our phenomenal professors, academic co-ordinator and learning facilities helped to make DMU the perfect springboard from which to immerse ourselves in the sports industry.”
Rebecca Hooper, of New Zealand, said: “It's only been ten months but those ten months have been some of the most fun, rewarding, eye-opening, challenging and amazing of my life. My classmates are classmates no more. Each and every 31 of them is a friend. “
Rebecca said highlights were learning about sports history, plus trips to Lord’s, Twickenham, Wimbledon and Leicester Tigers.
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Representing DMU were Professor Cillian Ryan, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, Professor Martin Polley, Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, and James Panter, the CIES Module Officer at DMU.
Professor Ryan said: “What impressed me most both about the students and academics was their commitment to understanding sports in its widest context, particularly its ethical and cultural context, and their desire, as future leaders and managers, to place the public good at the heart of all they do.”
Professor Martin Polley said : “This has been my first year at DMU and so my first involvement with the CIES MA. The graduation was a wonderful occasion which really stressed the course’s international outlook.
“As I met students’ families from Finland, South Korea, China, New Zealand, Mozambique, Argentina, and even England, I was touched by the truly global reach that sport education can achieve.”
Among the guests were Laurent Kurth, Government representative of the Canton of Neuchatel; Professor Mikkel Draebye, of SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan; Professor Jean-Jacques Aubert, Vice-Rector at the University of Neuchatel.
Posted on Friday 7 August 2015