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What makes Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations at Worcester special?

Equip yourself for a challenging career in the fast-paced and fast growth marketing communications industry. It is also recognised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) as career-relevant.

You'll learn from our team of specialist academic staff and marketing communications professionals and be supported by regular career coaching. You'll engage with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) as you position yourself to enter this highly creative sector.

With its strong focus on innovation, creativity and contemporary issues, (such as digital communications, social media, instant gratification and globalisation), this highly-specialised degree will signal that you are creative, focused and commercially-driven. You will be able to demonstrate your marketing communications expertise alongside the skills most valued by employers.

You will engage with the latest thinking through a research project supported by a member of our Customer Interactions Research Group.

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • Enhance your employability through internships, consultancy projects, a one-year paid placement and integrated coaching from experienced business leaders
  • Experience international cultures and develop a global mind-set through options to work and study abroad
  • A degree which is dual accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI)
  • Recognised from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
  • Associate Membership with Chartered Management Institute (CMI)
  • Opportunities to engage in additional professional certifications throughout the degree
Chartered Management Institute logo

Accreditation

This course has been mapped for dual accreditation with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Upon successful completion of specific modules and your course, you will be awarded a CMI Level 5 Certificate in Management and Leadership, in addition to your degree. During your studies, you will also benefit from associate membership to the CMI (at no extra cost), inclusive of an interactive induction session hosted by the CMI, as well as access to the CMI's digital library, resources, and employability skills audit.

“Research has indicated that with a CMI Dual Accredited Degree, graduates have the key skills required by 97% of employers. CMI Dual Accreditation also offers a 7%-point employability boost 15 months after graduation, with earnings on average 8% more than non-accredited graduates”.

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Worcester Business School 

Benefits to our students:

  • Gain insight into the related marketing communications disciplines of marketing, advertising and public relations and how they contribute to the creation of brand value
  • Work with academics and marketing communications professionals who have extensive experience of management, consultancy or running their own business
  • Study within a supportive learning community with access to excellent learning resources in purpose-built facilities
  • Engage with the latest thinking through a research project supported by a member of our Customer Interactions Research Group

Transforming individuals to thrive in the 21st Century

  • Through a flexible, work-related curriculum that develops knowledge, skills, the ability to continually learn, think critically, reflect, innovate, act responsibly and adapt to volatile, ambiguous and complex situations
  • Through meaningful engagement with business to develop professional behaviours
  • Through a focus on creativity, innovation and promoting entrepreneurial thinking
  • Through exposure to intercultural and international contexts to develop a global mind-set
  • Through applying contemporary research, scholarship and the latest thinking
  • Through a supportive and collaborative learning community
  • Through accessible learning resources and purpose-built facilities
Entry requirements

Entry requirements

112
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

112 UCAS tariff points (for example, BBC at A Level)

Applicants with no formal qualifications may be considered for Mature Student Entry Routes

T Levels may be used to meet the entry tariff requirements for this course. Find out more about T levels as UCAS tariff points here.

Other information

Students whose first language is not English will be expected to have reached a sufficient standard on admission to the programme (e.g. IELTS of 6.0 of higher or Pearson 59 or 51 or higher in each component).  Please note that IELTS exams must be no more than two years old at the start of the course.

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from the UCAS website.

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Course content

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Year 1

Mandatory

  • Unlocking Individual Potential
  • Customer Insight & Marketing
  • Financial Management
  • Generation Digital

Optional

 

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Unlocking Organisational Potential
  • Integrated Marketing Communications
  • Essential PR
  • Market Insight
  • Life-style Marketing
  • PR & Campaigning

Optional

All second year modules are mandatory. This enables you to acquire core marketing, advertising and public relations knowledge and skills.

It will also help you to identify the specialist topics which interest you and will want to select in Year 3.

 

Optional Placement Year or Year Abroad

You can choose to take a placement year and convert your degree to a 4-year sandwich degree with virtually all of our full-time Single Honours degrees in Business or Computing by taking a year in industry between your second and final years.

You will be able to apply to spend your placement year at an organisation of your choice, anywhere in the UK. Placement opportunities are available in all business sectors, including marketing, advertising, PR, HR, business management, finance, economics, programming and game design.

Year 3

Mandatory

  • Advertising & Digital Communications
  • Digital & Social Media Marketing
  • Spin Doctors, Lobbyists and Other Influencers

Optional

  • Brand Management
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • International Marketing
  • Digital Business
  • Business Intelligence & Analysis
  • The Next Big Thing
  • International Business Strategy

STUDENT VIEW - Dina Tomas

"Enrolling on the course was one of my best decisions ever. I enjoy its interactivity in and out of the lecture theatre. Bringing world-renowned speakers, such as Robert Leaf, and visiting the headquarters of media giants, such as BBC, adds even more value to the course. The CIPR accreditation gave me the opportunity to become a Student Representative - a valuable experience that enhanced my employability in a variety of ways and provided access to many networking events. Thanks to everything that I have learnt here, I managed to make a dream of mine come true and gain work experience as PR Assistant for Global Publicity, an award-winning PR agency, at EXIT music festival, one of Europe’s biggest festivals.”

 

Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

The University places emphasis on enabling you to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching, academic support through integrated coaching and the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Accreditation

All of our courses and modules have been mapped to take advantage of professional body accreditations: see individual course pages for further details.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive workshops, lectures, seminars, laboratory practical sessions, fieldwork, practical activities, etc. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures, and laboratory practical sessions are focused on developing subject specific skills and applied individual and group project work.

In addition, meetings (both individual and group) with personal academic tutors are scheduled throughout the academic year. There is an opportunity to undertake a year-long placement in the third year of the course, supervised by a work-based mentor and a University tutor. Depending upon the course, there may be an opportunity to study abroad at one the exchange partner universities.

Contact time

In a typical week there will be at least 12 hours of timetabled teaching in lectures, seminars and small-group work. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected. If the degree requires a Research or Consultancy Project, students will have guided supervision time with a Project Supervisor.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

  • Information giving, facilitated discussions, small group work, presentations
  • Practical skills - the opportunity to practise group facilitation, presentation, communication and listening skills
  • Visiting speakers and opportunities to visit other settings are regular features of the course.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, full-time students are expected to undertake around 24 hours of personal self-study per week, plus additional preparation for assessments and examinations. Typically, this will involve meeting with individual tutors to discuss progress and feedback, completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online. In addition to this, students will spend time sharing ideas with fellow students, taking part in extra-curricular learning activities and engaging with external employers.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources as well as our network of employers and entrepreneurs.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience and business leaders and employers.

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and many lectures are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy work carried out by staff and staff profiles can be view at the WBS Staff Profile Page.

Assessment

The precise assessment requirements in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken. The assessment strategy has been designed so that:

  • All modules have both formative and summative assessment elements. Formative assessment allows tutors and students to recognise strengths and weaknesses in learning and to address those issues immediately. Summative assessments are graded and count towards the final module grade, and they are assessed against the specific module learning outcomes.
  • Typically 15 credit/ one semester modules will have one assessment item; 30 credit/ two semester modules will have 2-3 assessments
  • Across each individual year and cumulatively across all three years the concept of continuous assessment and/or building up expertise in different assessment types applies. A variety of assessment types (reports, portfolios, presentations, essays and a final year research or consultancy project) are designed to suit different learning styles
  • There may be some specialisation by subject: e.g. exams are more common in Accounting, Finance and Economics modules because the professional bodies prefer this method of assessment for exemption/ accreditation purposes and many of our modules are linked to those bodies in order to obtain such exemption/ accreditation
  • Different types of employability skills are embedded in all modules.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal coursework assessments. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader.

Feedback is intended to support learning by indicating how you can improve in future assignments and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors to help support personal and academic development and enhance employability skills. Feedback on formal course work assessments is normally provided within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.


Careers

Careers

Meet The Team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.

The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience and business leaders and employers.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy work carried out by staff and you can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Here are a few of the current members of the department who teach on this course:

Dr Richard Nicholls

Dr Richard Nicholls

Richard’s main teaching and research interests focus on the management and marketing of services. Much of his research examines the interaction occurring between service customers and its management. 

Richard has published widely in this area in a range of international journals, and his work is frequently cited in the customer-to-customer interaction literature. Richard has extensive international experience and has taught at several European universities, including the European Business School in Frankfurt, Poznan University of Economics and Warsaw University.

dr-paulo-mora-avila

Dr Paulo Mora-Avila

Paulo has an extensive international experience in the fields of Marketing, Advertising and PR, performing roles both in academic and practical levels.

He holds an MBA from Royal Holloway University of London and a PhD in Marketing, Social Media and Consumer Behaviour with a focus on branding from the University of Birmingham.

Paulos teaching experience include Lecturer in Marketing at Birkbeck University of London, Lecturer in Marketing Strategy at Hult Business school and Assistant to Lecturers in Marketing Management at Birmingham University. His teaching and research areas of interest include, consumer behaviour, brands, social media, digital marketing, corporate reputation, and cross-cultural and cross-generational marketing.

Ria Wiid smiling at camera

Dr Ria Wiid

Before embarking on an academic career Ria worked in both corporate and entrepreneurial roles in the Information Technology, Distribution, Hospitality and Financial Services industries. She has extensive experience in strategic marketing, strategy planning, customer value management, customer engagement, direct marketing, and change management and several business start-ups, including a social enterprise.

Ria teaches undergraduate students on a variety of subjects in the field of digital marketing and integrated marketing communications. She also teaches in research methodology and supervises masters and doctoral students. Ria is an active researcher and member of the Managing Operations Risk and Sustainability (MORS) and Customer Interaction (CI) research groups.

This degree will prepare you to work on either the client or agency side of the marcomms industry. A wide range of roles exist in this sector, including:

  • Advertising account executive
  • Market researcher
  • Marketing executive
  • Media buyer/ planner
  • Public affairs consultant
  • PR executive
  • Sales promotion officer
Two students are walking next to each other and smiling

Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential
Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £16,200 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If you decide to take up the optional placement year accommodation and travel costs may be incurred dependent on location of placement. As placements are paid by the employer at minimum wage plus these costs can be covered by the student's wage. During this year you will pay 10% of normal academic fees to the University. You are provided with a placement tutor, and have access to the advice of the full placement team, as well as all University student support and services. You may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check for your placement.

There are also occasional trips which may require you to incur travel costs.

There will be a charge for membership of the professional bodies

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £131 per week to 'En-suite Premium' at £221 per week (2024/25 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

How to apply

How to apply

Applying through UCAS

Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations BA (Hons) (Single Honours): NP5F
Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations (Placement Year) 4 Yr: N5P2

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

John Gardener

Admissions tutor