MDX students graduate from pioneering scholarship aimed at boosting diversity in sports performance analysis

Three of the students have already landed top sports performance analysis roles with West Ham United, Watford FC and FIFA

Masters students at Middlesex University have graduated from a pioneering and first of its kind scholarship which is designed to increase the number of black, Asian and ethnically diverse people working in sports performance analysis.

Seven graduates of the 'Diversifying Sport Performance Analysis' scholarship were awarded their certificates in a special event on Sunday at Twickenham when England faced the Barbarians rugby team.

MDX has been running the scholarship in partnership with The English Institute of Sport, The Rugby Football Union, The England and Wales Cricket Board, The Lawn Tennis Association and The Football Association.

The students enjoyed mentoring from senior sports analysts from these prestigious organisations where they honed their skills.

This 12-month programme was devised by Dr Nimai Parmar and focussed on skills development relevant to addressing the changing landscape in sports analysis and other activities that focused on increasing their employability with their mentors.

Students could apply for the scholarship as part of the MSc in Sports Performance Analysis.

The successful applicants were awarded a 20% discount on their tuition fees and accreditation from the International Society of Performance Analysis of Sport (ISPAS).

At the Twickenham event, graduating students listened to an inspiring talk on diversity from MDX alumni Zaheer Shah (pictured below) who is one of the few Asian performance analysts working in top flight professional football at Tottenham Hotspurs.

Representatives from partner organisations were in attendance including Duncan Locke, Head of Performance Analysis at England Rugby, and Chris White, Performance Intelligence and Analysis Lead at the Lawn Tennis Association.

The students who graduated with the scholarship were: Daniel Bedeau, Dahir Jama, Arjun Dosa, Mohammed Koroma, Ho Cheng, Mitchell Pryce and Huxley Barnacle-Best.

Already, Daniel, Mohammed and Mitchell have landed both full and part time football performance analysis roles respectively with Championship side Watford FC, FIFA and West Ham United who play in the Premiership.

Daniel said: “It has been a huge privilege to be part of this scholarship and a great experience in which I have learned a lot from my mentor Hannah Jowitt, the cohort of students and Nimai Parmar who I would like to thank for making the opportunity possible.

“The highlight for me was having one-on-one mentoring with experts in my field as I was able to learn from them, discuss ideas and talk about any issues I had.

“It has really helped me in my growth and development as well as identifying areas of my skills set to improve.

“I highly recommend this scholarship if you want to develop further in your career.”

Dr Parmar, Programme Leader for the MSc Sport Performance Analysis and Senior Lecturer, said: “We launched this scholarship to attract more black, Asian and ethnic minority students as they are underrepresented in the industry.

“Ultimately, our goal was to open doors for these students in the field of sports performance analysis and a key part of this was the advice and mentoring from experienced analysts.

“This is the first scholarship of its kind for sports science as a whole and is sector leading.

“We’re delighted to see the first group of students obtain their scholarship and to hear some have already landed very prestigious roles is a huge success and one of our main aims.”

“I am thankful to all of my colleagues at the industry partner organisations for supporting this much needed equality, diversity and inclusion initiative and giving their valuable time and resource.”

Students from a black, Asian or ethnically diverse background can find out more information about applying for the 2022-2023  'Diversifying Sport Performance Analysis' scholarship.

The deadline to apply is 31 August and queries can be directed to N.Parmar@mdx.ac.uk.

In partnership with Saracens Rugby Club, students will have access to the fantastic resources at StoneX Stadium, including the brand new £23 million redevelopment project of the West Stand which offers state-of-the-art facilities as a top educational and high-performance centre for teaching and research excellence.

The new software partners for the 2022-2023 scholarship include SBG, Dartfish and Fulcrum Technology.