Southampton Solent University

Assessment Brief

Assessment Details

You are required to select an article published during the calendar year 2015, which discusses a governance issue in a sporting organisation. Then, prepare a report which evaluates the governance of that organisation, against the standards of established best practice. Your report should:

(a) Describe the role governance plays in effective management of a sporting organisation.

(b) Evaluate the governance of your chosen organisation against the standards of established best practice, and make recommendations for improvement.

(c)  Be written in an appropriate academic style.

Assessment criteria

·         (25%) Description of the role governance plays in a sporting organisation.

·         (60%) Evaluation of governance practice within your chosen organisation, and recommendations arising from it.

·         (15%) Style, presentation, communication and referencing.

Additional guidance

Your article may be selected from any of the following: Newspaper; Magazine; Journal; Academic paper. A copy of your article should be attached to the report as an appendix.

The unit myCourse site includes some materials on governance in sport. You will need to supplement this material with your own research.

The word count for this assignment is limited to a maximum of 1,500.You should provide an exact word count on the first page of your assignment and append a full reference list and bibliography at the end. Appendices, references and bibliography are not included in the word count.

The assignment is to be submitted in the form of a report. An executive summary and contents page are not required, but section headings should be used to indicate the structure and contents.

Credit has been allowed for style, presentation, communication and referencing, in order to encourage good practice. References should be in accordance with the Harvard Referencing System. A guide to Harvard referencing is available from the University Library.

Learning Outcomes

This assessment will enable students to demonstrate in full or in part the learning outcomes identified in the unit descriptors.

Extenuating Circumstances

The University’s Extenuating Circumstances procedures are in place if there are genuine circumstances that may have affected your academic performance. Remember however you need to be ‘fit to study’, this means that you can either submit your assessed work or declare extenuating circumstances, but you cannot do both.

A summary of guidance notes for students is given below:

http://blade2-5.solent.ac.uk/DocMan8/rns?RNSExact=ASQS/PPG/1234570925

Academic Misconduct

Any submissions must be your own work and, where facts or ideas have been used from other sources, these sources must be appropriately referenced. The University’s Academic Handbook, includes the definitions of all practices that will be deemed to constitute academic misconduct. You should check this link before submitting your work.

Procedures relating to student academic misconduct are given below:

http://blade2-5.solent.ac.uk/DocMan8/rns?RNSExact=ASQS/PPG/1234570157

Ethics Policy

The work being carried out by the student must be in compliance with the Ethics Policy. Where there is an ethical issue, as specified within the Ethics Policy, then the student will need an ethics release or an ethical approval prior to the start of the project.

Grade marking

The University uses a letter grade scale for the marking of assessments. Unless you have been specifically informed otherwise your marked assignment will be awarded a letter grade. More detailed information on grade marking and the grade scale can be found on myCourse. The guidance ‘fact sheet’ is available at the Faculty Reception Points.

Policy: http://docman.solent.ac.uk/DocMan8/OCSFile?RNS=1234569864

Fact sheet:  http://docman.solent.ac.uk/DocMan8/OCSFile?RNS=1234576014