Health & Wellbeing and Sport & Physical Education

Health and wellbeing studies alongside sport and physical education is a combination that reflects a shift in how we understand health: not simply as the absence of disease but as a positive state shaped by the environments, behaviours, and social conditions in which people live. Government health policy has increasingly moved towards prevention and health promotion, recognising that addressing the root causes of ill health, including poverty, social exclusion, poor nutrition, and sedentary lifestyles, is as important as treating disease once it appears. Sport and physical education connects directly to this agenda, with physical activity among the most well-evidenced interventions for improving both physical and mental health across the lifespan.

At Liverpool Hope this four-year full-time programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, giving you a wide range of professional and international experience. The health and wellbeing component develops your understanding of the determinants of health, health promotion theory and practice, public health policy, and the social and structural factors that shape health outcomes across different populations. The sport and physical education element gives you subject knowledge in physical activity and sport alongside pedagogical skills for teaching and coaching.

Together, the two disciplines prepare you to work in a range of roles that require both understanding of health and wellbeing at a population level and practical skills in physical education and movement.

Graduates find careers in public health promotion, sports development, physical education teaching, school sport, health coaching, community physical activity programmes, local authority leisure and wellbeing services, and the NHS and voluntary sector. The combination is particularly relevant for roles working with young people in schools and community settings where sport and wellbeing intersect. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in public health, physical education, sport science, or health promotion, or pursue teacher training qualifications in physical education.