Research methodology

Workflow

1. Discover a provider. Search engines, directories, rankings and Wikipedia are used for discovery only; they never verify a fact. Discovery runs in English and in local languages, across official course catalogues, national study portals, qualification and accreditation registers, professional bodies, governing bodies and club pages. Each search is logged with its query, engine, date, destination and outcome.
2. Verify identity and operation on the provider’s own website, including that it publishes current information. Closed or discontinued programs are excluded; where current enrolment cannot be confirmed we say “Current enrollment availability not confirmed”.
3. Confirm the location or delivery arrangement: the campus, training ground or venue where teaching happens, not an office. Provider location, delivery location and online enrolment eligibility are kept separate. Online-only providers are never counted as present in a state or city.
4. Classify the pathway: degree, professional course, or athlete training. The three are never mixed in one default comparison.
5. Record the exact award and its kind: academic degree, academic certificate, professional certification, coaching licence, attendance certificate or none. Award titles are kept as published.
6. Extract duration separately from level: exact published duration, contact hours, session frequency and dates. The directory's short-term (under six calendar months) and long-term (six months or longer) bands are browsing labels, not official classifications. Recurring or flexible courses get no invented duration.
7. Verify delivery: whole-program delivery, live or asynchronous teaching, attendance schedules, campus visits, laboratories, assessments, placements and geographic restrictions. A search snippet never establishes fully online delivery.
8. Extract fees in the original currency with basis, period, student category and inclusions. Installments are never totals. Unknown prices are empty, never zero.
9. Check the operator and club relationship for every club-related program: who actually runs it, which club is named, and the evidence for the relationship (operated by the club, officially licensed, official partner, independent or not confirmed). A logo, shirt, visiting coach or rented stadium is not evidence.
10. Save sources: the page address and a short verbatim quote for each fact. A script re-fetches the pages and checks that each quote is still present; facts whose quote cannot be found are withheld or downgraded.
11. Deduplicate and publish after review.

Who is included, and the completeness rule

A provider or program is eligible when its identity can be verified, it fits the scope, its location or delivery arrangement can be established, an official source supports its existence, and it is not known to be discontinued. A published price, an admissions page or an accommodation offer is not required. Missing information is shown as “Tuition not published”, “Admissions details not published”, “Accommodation information not published” or “Contact the provider for details”, and never means that a service is unavailable, that admissions are closed or that tuition is free. Relevance and verification are judged separately from profile completeness, so thinner profiles are not buried.

Excluded: talent or recruitment agencies, unverified coaching offers, a club's professional youth squad that the public cannot enrol in, remote coaching advice presented as an athlete training program, generic fitness degrees that do not name a sport or exercise subject, and closed programs.

Professional and clinical subjects

For athletic training, physiotherapy, sports psychology, nutrition, sports medicine, physical education and sports law we distinguish academic study from professional qualification, record the intended audience, say whether prior professional registration is required, record the accreditation that exists, and link to current official requirements where we found them. We do not imply that a course makes anyone a physician, dietitian, lawyer, teacher, psychologist, physiotherapist or athletic trainer.

Destinations

The launch scope is 22 study destinations: the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Türkiye. This is a curated study-destination scope, not an official ranking. The database supports more destinations; none appear without verified coverage. A destination page exists only where there is verified inventory; other destinations are shown as research gaps. See destinations.

What we do not do

• We do not invent providers, awards, accreditation, fees, scholarships, trials, scouting, contracts, careers, reviews or testimonials, and we do not claim exhaustive coverage.
• We do not promise scouting exposure, trials, scholarships, contracts or professional careers, and we do not treat a famous alumnus as an outcome.
• We do not present a directory check as a safety guarantee for junior programs, and we do not collect children's detailed personal records.
• We do not bypass bot protection or access restrictions. Where an official page or register could not be reached, the record says so.
• We do not sell verification, recognition, professional endorsement, club-relationship labels or editorial selection. Sponsorship is separate; see the sponsorship disclosure.

Freshness

Fees, dates, intakes and programs change. Each record shows when it was last checked; past dates are shown as past and never moved forward, and archived camps or old PDFs do not establish current availability. See corrections.