Program Approval

The North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) are pleased to continue to support the work of the Sport Management Program Review Council (SMPRC) in their efforts to improve the quality of education that sport management majors receive through the program review and approval process that has been in place since the early 1990s.

NASSM and NASPE are pleased to provide you with important information regarding the status of program review and approval as well as the status of the National Standards that are currently in revision.

The Sport Management Program Standards and Review Protocol are updated every seven years and evolve based on industry needs and the changing environment in sport management. The 2000 document was scheduled to be revised and published in 2006 to allow for programs to absorb the information, make appropriate changes to their curriculum if necessary, and reapply for program approval. Given the current possible need for on-site visitations and the ever-changing parameters of the sport business industry, NASSM and NASPE felt it necessary to thoroughly review the proposed standards and investigate the need for our current program approval process to be graduated to a program accreditation process. Since this would involve significant changes to the overall process, NASSM and NASPE have formed two task forces to investigate both issues.

Since the task forces will need time for a comprehensive review and NASSM and NASPE will need to evaluate their recommendations, our projected release date of the standards has been delayed. In order to accommodate the programs scheduled to expire in 2006 and 2007, NASSM and NASPE have agreed to extend the approved status for these programs. This extension should allow for NASSM and NASPE to publish new standards and provide SMPRC time to educate reviewers and Council members about the new process. Programs that are due to expire in the 2006-2008 time frame are being contacted and communicated with directly.

New programs or programs wishing to renew their approved status that are interested in submitting their program under the current approval process may continue to use the 2000 Sport Management Program Standard and Review Protocol and submit by the March 15 and October 15 deadlines. October 15, 2006 will be the last time to submit under the current approval process. Programs interested in seeking program accreditation should wait to submit their materials until NASSM and NASPE announce the status of the review process. Once the program accreditation process is implemented, the approval process will be discontinued. Ample notification of this change will be given to those programs that would be in the process of compiling their information for submission.

NASSM and NASPE will provide updates of the task force findings and will release the standards and review process protocol at the earliest possible time. Please contact us with any questions or concerns. We thank you for your commitment to quality curricular development by participating in the SMPRC review process.

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