With its growing popularity among undergraduate and graduate students, it’s no wonder the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management (SPTE) wants to offer a doctoral program. It’s the next logical step for the department and USC.
Currently, sport and entertainment management is an increasingly popular segment of academia; just look to the more than 600 students in the undergraduate program and the 20 and 25 students in the relatively new master’s program.
It’s crucial USC remains at the forefront of research that helps shape the world as we know it. But luckily for USC, SPTE department administrators made sure to include plans for a doctoral program when it initially established its graduate program three years ago. As a result, there’s very little overhead in adding this program to USC’s already diverse course offerings.
And while USC does face stiff competition — 21 other universities also have doctoral programs in the field — our program is sure to stand out with its more holistic view of both sport and entertainment management.
According to department heads, it’s going to be a hit among the best and brightest in the discipline. It’ll bring more talent and intellectual diversity to our school, and it’ll help cultivate skilled professors here at USC, of whom there is a dire need in the program’s limited undergraduate sections.
Plans for the doctoral program still have to be approved by the state Commission on Higher Education. Once they do so, we’ll be glad to welcome even more new members to our Gamecock family this fall.