We're proud to recognise that this is the longest-established Public Relations course in the UK, and as such it is widely recognised as one of the best in the country!
Every organisation, large and small, needs to communicate, whether that’s with its customers, business partners, the media or the public. On this engaging and exciting course, you'll cover the theoretical and practical sides of PR, as well as spending 30-weeks on a placement in the sector. This combination of a strong theoretical grounding and plenty of practical experience means that you’ll be ready to take on a variety of roles in this dynamic industry when you graduate. 88% of our final year students agree our staff are good at explaining things – why not come and meet us to find out more?*
This course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and the PR Consultants Association.
*All statistics shown are taken from Unistats, Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE), BU institutional data and Ipsos MORI (National Student Survey) unless otherwise stated.
Facilities
Location
Start date
Bournemouth
(Dorset)
Fern Barrow, Talbot Campus, BH12 5BB
Start date
On request
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Subjects
Staff
Teaching
Public Relations
Marketing
Relationship Marketing
PR training
Advertising
Public
Communications
Industry
Stakeholder
Communication Training
Media
Learning Teaching
PR
Course programme
Course details
On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
Year 1
Core units
Principles of Public Relations: This unit will introduce the concept of public relations as a persuasive form of public communication.
Public Relations, Media & Society: You will become familiar with the relationship between PR and other promotional and communication industries.
Public Relations Skillset: This unit focuses on a range of tangible skills required for the successful study, pursuit and practice of PR, as practitioners and scholars.
Reputation Management in a Global Context: You will gain an understanding of the major theoretical perspectives on reputation management and relate these to public relations practices in a global context.
Public Opinion & Persuasion: This unit introduces the theories of persuasion in contemporary society and the concepts publics and public opinion.
Applied Public Relations Campaigns: You will consider why organisations plan and implement campaigns and how PR can contribute to objectives like raising awareness, informing, changing attitudes and behaviour, and managing relationships.
Year 2
Core units
Media Management: You'll develop practical skills in engaging with the media in public relations activity and reflect on the tensions inherent in relationships between public relations and media professionals at all levels.
Digital Communications: This unit aims to provide an understanding of emerging digital technologies, to assess, apply and evaluate the role of digital communications in the promotional and media communications industries.
Developing the Research Imagination: You will get hands-on experience of qualitative and quantitative methods, modes of analysis, interpretation and presentation of research findings to understand how research is done from beginning to end.
Stakeholder Insights: By the end of this unit you will be able to identify and evaluate stakeholder interests relevant to the design of an effective stakeholder management communications plan.
Creativity for PR: Here you'll be introduced to techniques and approaches that foster creativity and apply the different approaches in a range of communication situations, both tactical and strategic.
Live Public Relations Campaigns: You'll gain an understanding of the role and processes of media relations in communicating messages to target publics and to develop their ability to represent an organisation via a range of media relations techniques.
Year 3
The inclusion of a 30 week (minimum) placement is a key feature in helping you to develop your abilities and understanding of advertising in the work environment. It also provides a platform for successful entry into the profession following graduation.
Year 4
Core units
Academic Dissertation or Consultancy Dissertation: The dissertation offers you the opportunity to become an expert on a topic of particular interest and to develop a study that connects your learning with real-world observations
PR Innovation & Enterprise: Here you will develop an awareness of the role of innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurial management within the PR industry.
Option units (choose three)
Advertising Culture: The unit addresses the sometimes rather marginalised subject area of the influence that advertising has on the broad area of culture.
Applied Creativity: This unit will concentrate on developing nonlinear, creative thinking in addressing problems that motivate solution-finding, generating and developing ideas, and implementation (‘design thinking’).
Behavioural Economics: This unit will focus on learning's from cognitive neuroscience, and how these can be appropriated for enhanced strategy and creativity.
Consumer Futurising: You will gain a critical appreciation of state of the art thinking within consumer culture studies.
Corporate Social Responsibility: You will be introduced to ideas relating to the creation of corporate social responsibility strategies, tactics and initiatives.
Corporate Sponsorship: This unit will enable you to analyse the growing importance of corporate sponsorship as a marketing communication tool.
Creative Direction & Copywriting: This module will extend your capacity to generate appropriate ideas, concepts, proposals and solutions, to critically assess the quality of your ideas.
Data Driven Marketing: This unit provides the forum to critically assess, from a theoretical and professional perspective.
Digital Futures: This option allows you to critically investigate the rise, impact and future of digital culture and digital technologies.
Environmental Communication: You will explore and be equipped to understand how significant environmental communication is for organisations.
Health & Science Communications: You will engage critically with health and science communications concerns.
International Fashion Marketing Communications: You will be introduced to the key concepts, models and central philosophies, thinking and practice within the context of international fashion marketing.
Media Economics: You will develop a critical understanding of the commercial dynamics of media industries, markets and firms in a period of profound change.
Media (in) Equality: You will critique historical development of the representation of race, gender and class in the media from a range of critical perspectives and conceptual frameworks.
Persuasion & Influence: The unit will explore theory and practice as it relates to persuasion and influence.
PR & Journalism: In this unit you will analyse the sometimes contentious relationship between PR and journalism in contemporary society.
Promotion Power & Democracy: You will be exposed key theoretical ideas from social and critical theory, political economy and political philosophy.
Psychology of the Media: This unit introduces you to those major paradigms in individual and social psychology which have been applied to the consumption of media.
Relationship Marketing: This unit provides an opportunity for conceptual analysis of the scholarship within relationship marketing and consideration of the implications of this analysis for relationship marketing practice.
Social Communications: This unit will encourage you to create new ways of using promotional communication perspectives, insights and skills for social purposes.
Strategic Management for PR: Gain a critical view of the major perspectives and theoretical approaches in strategic management and appreciate the role that Public Relations has in shaping corporate and business level strategies.
Transcultural Communications Practices: You will critically evaluate the main theories, concepts and principles of intercultural communication in order to apply them to varied communication practices.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
Scheduled learning and teaching activities
The emphasis of this course is in guided independent learning, which helps you develop into a self-motivated learner. When not attending lectures and seminars, you will be expected to read around the subject. Your typical week’s activities will include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments. The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during each year of this course.
Year 1 – 17% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities
Learning and teaching: 210 hours
Independent learning: 990 hours
Year 2 – 17% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities
Learning and teaching: 202.5 hours
Independent learning: 997.5 hours
Year 3 – Placement year
Year 4 – 15% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities
Learning and teaching: 165 hours
Independent learning: 1035 hours
54% of the course is assessed by coursework
Year 1: 67%
Year 2: 72%
Year 3: 0% (placement year)
Year 4: 75%
Throughout the course you will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, but you will also undertake group work and written exams.
Programme specification
Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.
View the programme specification for BA (Hons) Public Relations.
Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.
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