Partnership pedagogy in sport management education

Industry partnerships play an increasingly important role in shaping learning, employability and professional identity within sport management education. As the sport industry diversifies and professionalises, effective engagement between universities and industry stakeholders requires more than guest lectures or traditional internships. Meaningful partnerships depend on intentional design, reciprocal value creation and a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Evidence highlights persistent challenges. Students often struggle to recognise the educational value of partnership activities, industry motivations beyond corporate social responsibility are frequently unclear, and educators lack practical frameworks for establishing, sustaining and evaluating partnership quality. Partnership models such as mentorship schemes, co-created curricula, collaborative research, consultancy projects and experiential learning offer significant potential, but they operate within complex power relations shaped by misaligned incentives, unequal resources and uneven access to professional networks. Structural barriers, including limited industry capacity, unclear expectations and persistent inequities for students from underrepresented or disabled backgrounds, further constrain effective implementation. Therefore, educators must embed equity-centred practices, build trust with partners and articulate clear value propositions. Through reflective tools, progressive engagement models and intentional partner diversification, sport management programmes can develop partnership ecosystems that expand opportunity, enhance professional readiness and contribute to a more inclusive and capable sport workforce.