Posted on: December 14, 2016
By: Allen Wallace, wallacej7@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-5667
The College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management (HRSM) helped lead the University of South Carolina to No. 1 in the United States and No. 3 in the world in the 2016 ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments.
The rankings, published Dec. 8, credit HRSM along with the USC departments of exercise science, physical education and athletic training for the university’s standing. ShanghaiRankings, also known as the Academic Ranking of World Universities, is regarded as one of the three most influential rankings of international universities, and has been cited by many publications including Inside Higher Ed, The Guardian, and The Christian Science Monitor.
“Our sport and entertainment management program (SPTE) has shown phenomenal growth in both quantity and quality in recent years,” said HRSM Dean Haemoon Oh. “This world ranking is not a surprise, and it reflects strongly on our faculty and our vigorous global leadership, industry engagement, and experiential education.
USC is the first major university to create a separate department for the study of sport and entertainment with a solid business curriculum. The SPTE Department offers three degree programs including a bachelor of science, as well as master's and doctorate-level degrees in sport and entertainment management. The department is also home to the College Sport Research Institute and hosts the annual Sports Entertainment & Venues Tomorrow Conference.
ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments examined 361 universities which engage significantly in sport science research. The rankings are based on the measurement of publication, citation, citations per publication, top 25% journals publications, and internationally collaborated publications. The bibliometric data is collected from Web of Science database with a time window of five years. For more information about the methodology and indicators of the ranking, please visit www.shanghairanking.com.
“Our faculty prides itself in its work with sport management students, and the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management is excited to be recognized and highly ranked by another respected international organization,” said SPTE Department Chair Matt Brown. “Our relatively young graduate program has led to greater research productivity impacting all areas of the sport industry, and this ranking reflects the quality of our alumni, students, and faculty as we together shape the future of our global industry.”
The top 10 Sport Science Schools and Departments are:
| Rank | Country | Unit Name |
| 1 | Australia | Deakin University School of Exercise and Nutrition Science |
| 2 | UK | Loughborough University School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences |
| 3 | USA | University of South Carolina - Columbia Department of Exercise Science College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management Department of Physical Education and Athletic Training |
| 4 | Norway | Norwegian School of Sport Sciences Norwegian School of Sport Sciences |
| 5 | Australia | The University of Queensland School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences |
| 6 | UK | Liverpool John Moores University School of Sport and Exercise Sciences |
| 7 | Denmark | University of Southern Denmark Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics |
| 8 | Belgium | KU LEUVEN Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences |
| 9 | Belgium | Ghent University Department of Movement and Sport Science |
| 10. | Germany | German Sport University Cologne German Sport University Cologne |
ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is a fully independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation. It is the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).