An Exploration of how Alumni Advisory Boards May Inform Pedagogical Practice in Sport Management Programs

Alumni advisory boards can improve sport management curricula in a multitude of ways that help ultimately develop more successful graduates and increase program credibility. However, Lawrence et al. (2018) revealed that only about 40% of surveyed sport management programs had alumni advisory boards. Thus, we are conducting a rapid review of the literature on alumni advisory boards to assess their impact on curricular development. Prevalent in health research, rapid reviews aid in informing decision-making processes. For this reason, we hope our rapid review will inform sport management educators about the value of creating an alumni advisory board. The review will look to excerpt information that will specifically highlight how these boards inform pedagogical practice, distinguish the additional benefits of establishing an alumni advisory board, as well as discuss core features of an alumni advisory board. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, using six databases, specific search terms, and other delimitations. The research is ongoing; however, preliminary results suggest that alumni advisory boards may provide insights that help to narrow the gap between academia and industry, thereby improving curricula, expanding networks, and generating financial aid for institutions. Literature was also found describing the processes involved with establishing an alumni advisory board. The overall goal of this research is to explore how these findings apply to sport management programs, particularly the University of Windsor’s Sport Management and Leadership program, to augment its status as one of the top in its class.