MA Corporate Communication

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. Core units Analysis & Decision-making in Communication Management: You'll analyse an organisation’s internal and external environment and foster strategic thinking in a global environment, evaluate and prioritise an organisation’s corporate objectives, analyse difference and identify competitive advantages. You'll also assess the organisation's resources and capabilities before moving on to decision-making for strategic corporate communication. Research Imagination: Drawing on you research knowledge and experience from undergraduate level, this unit challenges your understanding of academic and applied research in the communications industries. You'll be exposed to cutting-edge research practices and introduced to the opportunities and challenges of conducting applied research using industry data collection and analysis techniques. Strategic Corporate Communication: This unit uses global case studies as a key teaching and learning mechanism. You'll be encouraged to become a listener and storyteller who appreciates the cultural differences existing in and outside of the organisation. The corporate communicator’s role in shaping the organisation’s narrative will be explored, along with corporate branding, thought leadership and managing reputational risk. Crisis Communication: Considering the role of communication in an organisation in times of crisis, you'll be prepared for management roles in the communication industry with an overview of crisis communication. This is a strategic-level specialism of public relations. At the end of this unit, you'll understand how crisis communication is used in for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. Digital Insights: Tactical skills for developing digital advertising and marketing communications strategies. You'll look at a set of specific skills, such as SEO and Google analytics, and understand digital communications and its place in contemporary advertising. By the end of the unit, you'll be able to draw up effective and measurable digital communications plans and evaluate and integrate new digital trends. Integrated Campaign Planning: Built on a platform of theoretical perspectives, this unit brings together marketing, management and communications approaches for creating and distributing messages to stakeholders through appropriate communication channels. You'll identify media relations processes in communicating messages to target audiences and in representing an organisation. An organisation's response to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical issues will also be explored. Professional Boot Camp: An intensive work experience and networking opportunity that draws together all the work you've completed on this course. You'll get the chance to apply what you've learnt in the real world of Corporate Communication and PR. A mentor will be assigned to you and you'll spend two weeks working in the mentor’s organisation. This experience will help you develop a professional portfolio and career plan. Final Project: You'll complete an academic paper or a professional or consultancy project, applying the principles of systematic research to support academic and professional thinking in corporate communication and PR. Your project will be underpinned by what you learnt in the Research Imagination unit. You'll explore your chosen discipline in detail and generate new insights. This unit ends with a showcase where you'll present your work to peers, academic colleagues and other guests. CIPR Postgraduate Diploma We've recently strengthened our relationship with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the UK's largest communications professional body. Our academic department is now an accredited teaching centre for delivering CIPR Diplomas. This means we can offer you a CIPR Diploma as well as your MA, with no extra cost beyond your tuition fees. Having a CIPR diploma will help you stand out as it shows you have a professional attitude and commitment to best practice. If you're interested, you'll begin your diploma in Semester 3, after you've completed units in Semesters 1 and 2. You can choose between the following diplomas: Internal Communication Crisis (Response) Communication. You can find more information about CIPR Diplomas here. 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. Download the programme specification for MA Corporate Communication (Word doc). 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.