Global organisations are realising that their corporate communications and marketing functions need to work closely to communicate with stakeholders. This growing interdependence has partly been driven by the impact of online communications on organisational reputation.
This course recognises this industry shift and explores the drivers and dynamics of modern corporate communications and its relationship with marketing and public relations. You focus on stakeholder management, global marketing, brand management, reputation management, media relations and social media.
Taught by researchers who combine their professional experience with the latest research expertise, you’ll examine key theories and concepts and gain the practical professional skills employers are looking for.
You’ll benefit from our corporate connections, as senior figures working in the sector regularly visit to offer a practitioner’s view during guest lectures. Many also provide case studies and practical projects.
Academic excellence
The Marketing division at Leeds University Business School is one the leading centres of research in marketing in Europe. As part of our research, we engage with companies, senior executives and academics across the globe.
Our research makes an important contribution to your learning on the programme; our academics bring their world-leading expertise to you in the classroom. The Global and Strategic Marketing Research Centre (GLOSMARC) is the Business School’s established and esteemed centre of excellence for scholarly research work.
The course provides you with an essential foundation in communications theory, marketing strategy and public relations practice.
You’ll explore the history and theory of corporate communications, connecting communications to overall corporate strategy. Alongside this, you’ll study the latest thinking in important areas of marketing such as international marketing, marketing strategy and marketing research, as well as understanding how organisations manage their brands and identities, marketing communications and key priorities such as sustainability.
During the Public Relations in Practice module, you’ll work alongside classmates in interactive workshops that focus on the practical applications of some key PR tools and techniques. You’ll cover essential skills such as campaign planning, personal communication skills, influencing techniques and writing for PR.
In addition, you’ll choose from a selection of optional modules that allow you to focus on a topic that matches your interests and career plans.
In the final semester you will apply your skills and knowledge to either a research dissertation or a practical consultancy project. Our consultancy projects give you the opportunity to work with a live business situation, make links with industry and gain work experience that can be exceptionally rewarding.
Compulsory modules
You’ll study nine compulsory modules, plus either a dissertation or consultancy project.
Optional modules
You’ll also choose one optional module.
We use a range of teaching methods so you can benefit from the expertise of our academics, including lectures, workshops, seminars, simulations and tutorials. Company case studies provide an opportunity to put your learning into practice.
Independent study is also vital for this course, allowing you to prepare for taught classes and sharpen your own research and critical skills.
Assessment methods emphasise not just knowledge, but essential skills development too. You’ll be assessed using a range of techniques including exams, group projects, written assignments and essays, in-course assessment, group and individual presentations and reports.
Graduates have a rounded and reflective approach to communications strategy and practice. Many become effective communications professionals, either in internal corporate and marketing communications roles or in PR, digital and social media agencies.
Links with industry
A number of senior figures from the world of corporate communications, marketing and public relations are invited to deliver guest lectures, providing a practitioner's view of the latest industry developments.
Recent contributors include: Sainsburys, Creative Concern, Ikea UK & IE, Sustainly, Marks and Spencer, Search Laboratory, Twentysix and Brand 24.
We help you to achieve your career ambitions by providing professional development support as part of the course.
Our dedicated professional development tutor provides you with tailored academic and careers support. They help you to develop essential skills to successfully progress through the course, and also the professional skills you need to gain employment in your future career.
You can expect advice and guidance with your career choices, help in identifying and applying for jobs, as well as one-to-one coaching for interpersonal skills.
Read more about our Careers and professional development support.
The Sustainability and Consultancy Masters offers a grounding in the broad range of sustainability topics beyond just environmental issues (from project development to corporate sustainability strategy). It will also develop the professional skills you’ll need.
Sustainability is an integrated issue across our teaching, rather than separating the environmental, economic and social elements.
Specialist modules are delivered by academic staff, practising consultants and other practitioners, giving you exposure to real-life, international case studies with a good understanding of contemporary management techniques and solutions.
This course aligns closely with the challenges of sustainability and the skills that employers say they need to tackle those challenges, with a strong emphasis on project skills.
Course highlights:
This is an approved Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) course:
This means once you graduate you are eligible to become an IEMA Graduate Member – GradIEMA - the first stage towards full professional chartership.
You are also eligible to take-up free student membership.
IEMA supports individuals and organisations to set, recognise and achieve global sustainability standards and practice.
If you complete an additional assessment during semester two and pass the degree, you automatically qualify. A step which usually requires an additional exam after a period of workplace experience.
The course is split in to 3 semesters if you study on a 12 month full-time basis. In the semester 1, you will take lectures and seminars which lay the theoretical foundation needed for you to gain an in-depth understanding of sustainability topics.
In semester 2, you will focus on you applying this knowledge through case studies and on practical professional skills development.
Throughout the year, you can also take part in personal development workshops and activities including networking with project hosts, helping you secure a successful research project for semester three.
In semester 3, the focus switches to individual work, where you will deliver a project usually carried out on a placement of around 10 weeks.
You will then present the progression you have made in your project around the end of June, and submit your final dissertation in late August.
The course runs for 24 months on a part-time basis, with each year split into 3 semesters. You will take 2 taught modules in semesters 1 and 2 each year, followed by a full-time project placement in semester 3 of your final year.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
You will learn through a variety of methods including lectures, practical workshops, computer lab sessions, research seminars, field trips and project work.
The research-intensive environment of the School ensures that your course material is both up-to-date and research led.
You'll also learn the scientific and rational principles lying behind the practical approaches used in the world outside academia, so that your skills keep pace with changes in technology or the regulatory environment.
Facilities
The School of Earth and Environment’s £23m building gives you access to world-class research, teaching and facilities.
You will be assessed through a variety of ways including both written and oral assignments and exams. And through individual and group work.
Graduates have gone on to a wide variety of careers in sustainability:
We offer extra support and activities to help you stand out in your chosen field and achieve your career goals. The School of Earth and Environment has a strong commitment to enhancing student employability and has its own dedicated Employability Officer. Read more about our careers and employability.
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.
Businesses are changing the way they think about products, technologies, operations and business models, all while ensuring that these deliver environmental, social and financial benefits.
If you have a positive vision of the future, want to lead innovation and do business better – either across a large organisation or through your own startup – then the MSc in Sustainability and Business is ideal for you.
Uniquely based outside of a business school, we are preparing you, the next generation of innovators, to think, develop and reinvent sustainable enterprises in an increasingly challenging world.
Learn what shapes the relationships between business, environment and society, and how individuals and organisations can address social and environmental problems by means of creating and developing new businesses and innovation.
You'll develop specialist skills to meet the growing need for sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation. Although large corporations are more visible, real innovation in sustainability is emerging and being driven by new businesses.
Practical skills – like developing ideas and plans for new sustainable ventures, pitching to investors and acting as a change agent within large organisations – give you experience of genuine business challenges faced in the real-world.
We offer you a truly inter-disciplinary learning experience that gives you the chance to work with your peers across subject areas to co-develop new business projects.
Course highlights:
The course is split in to 3 semesters if you study on a 12 month full-time basis. In the first 2 terms you will take lectures and seminars, followed by approximately 4 months of individual work leading to the submission of a dissertation in late August.
You’ll consider different aspects of sustainability, while a wide range of optional modules allow you tailor your study to fit your interests and career plans.
You can also choose an optional overseas field course which enables you to gain practical experience and apply classroom-based learning first hand in a developing country context.
The course runs for 24 months on a part-time basis, with each year split into 3 semesters. You will take 2 modules in each semester, followed by individual work leading to the submission of a dissertation in semester 3 of your final year.
You will learn through a variety of teaching methods to help you develop both generic and subject-specific skills.
This includes lectures, real case studies, practical workshops, computer lab sessions, research seminars from external speakers, project work (individual and groupwork) and a written dissertation.
Practical exercises focus around real-world scenarios and case studies to produce optimal solutions including familiarisation with state-of-the-art technical approaches, software and the regulatory regimes that companies and public sector organisations operate within.
The research-intensive environment of the School ensures that your course material is both up-to-date and research led.
You'll also learn the scientific and rational principles lying behind the practical approaches used in the world outside academia, so that your skills keep pace with changes in technology or the regulatory environment.
Facilities
The School of Earth and Environment’s £23m building gives you access to world-class research, teaching and facilities.
You will be assessed through a variety of ways including both written and oral assignments and exams.
You will learn the skills to pursue careers both in business and in other sectors of the economy, such as government or non-governmental organisations.
Your final career destination often depends on the experience you have had before starting the Masters, so if you have already worked in business you may find it easier to get sustainability or CSR jobs in companies immediately after graduation.
This Masters could also help you enhance your current sustainability credentials, returning to your jobs with new skills and understanding.
Alternatively, you could pursue a research career and continue on to a PhD.
Recent graduates work for local government or NGOs, or undertake internships. While others are now working for consultancy companies.
Typical roles undertaken by our recent graduates:
This MSc Business Management (Corporate Social Responsibility) course is focused on your career development. With this master's degree accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) you will be ready for a successful international career with a commercial or not-for-profit organisation.
On this course you will learn to identify, analyse and evaluate a range of business related issues. You will develop suitable responses to these problems and be able to select the most appropriate course of action.
The specialism within this degree enables you to focus your studies within the area of corporate social responsibility. Focusing on the corporate social responsibility discipline will prepare you for a range of careers around the themes of sustainability and corporate governance. You will learn to ask underlying ethical questions about business and management, and you'll develop the tools to understand complex problems from a range of socially responsible perspectives. Studying the specialism means you will take corporate social responsibility modules during your MSc degree. Your final degree will be awarded as MSc Business Management (Corporate Social Responsibility).
Modules
On the MSc Business Management (Corporate Social Responsibility) course you will study the modules listed below, and then choose between completing a dissertation, a synoptic research project or work-based project. Please see the course structure chart.
Capstone Module Choice
You will choose one of the following capstone modules that best suits your academic interests or professional development requirements.
This course is dual accredited by CMI – a CMI accreditation means you have the option to graduate with your degree and gain a professional CMI qualification (Level 7 in Strategic Management and Leadership) and there’s no extra study involved. This accreditation is not only a hallmark of excellence, but also provides you with benefits. For example, student members can access online content, networking events, company visits, online seminars and mentoring.
Much of the teaching on the course takes the form of interactive workshops, but there are also lectures from staff and visiting speakers. Lectures, discussions, role-play exercises and seminars are linked with selected case studies and assessments to strengthen your practical analysis and decision-making skills. You will have the opportunity to develop your skills in working as part of a team through structured group assignments.
Teaching staff at the Business School are academic researchers and/or from an industry background with an in-depth practical experience of business and management issues. Visiting speakers from business, industry, consultancies and research bodies provide further input.
Each module is assessed individually, generally on the quality of written or visual presentation work, and to some extent on verbal presentations. Assessment methods may include reports, seminar papers, formal written examinations, in-class tests, project work, visual and verbal presentations, workshops, simulations, oral exams (viva) and practical exercises. The majority of assessments are based on individual assignments, but there is some assessed group work.
At Headington we have developed outstanding facilities. Our John Henry Brookes Building is the most significant project in the history of Oxford Brookes University. Set at the heart of our Headington campus, it has been designed for the future of higher education and has transformed the experiences of our students and the entire University community. Find out more about the John Henry Brookes Building.
We're investing over £30m to create modern teaching and learning facilities and creating a new home at Headington for the Business School.
Set to be complete in 2017, you'll see:
Our library provides specialist business resources (both hard copy and via online access) to UK and overseas companies' annual reports, statistics on all aspects of business and management, a wide range of constantly updated key texts, and postgraduate MA, MBA, MSc and PhD theses.
By listening to our students and recognising the need for practice-oriented business and management education, we have introduced new ways to engage with companies from the public and the non-profit sector. You will have the opportunity to visit various company sites organised through our extensive network of corporate contacts and the Chartered Management Institute. We also host a number of guest speakers throughout the year who bring their business and management experience and expertise to the classroom.
We offer an International Business in Practice Study Trip module. The purpose of this study trip is to give postgraduate students a hands-on, intensive experience with the ideas and practices of global business. The programme will include presentations from local management executives and experts. Students will have direct interaction with management executives and practices through site visits to major corporations and agencies.
This study trip is voluntary and all costs associated with the trip will need to be funded by you. It is not linked to university assessments in any way. If you successfully complete this module you will have the following non-credit bearing module recorded on your transcript: P58335 International Business in Practice: Study Trip.
Field trips are optional and incur a cost.
This programme gives you a solid grounding in issues key to the sustainable development debate. The views of stakeholders such as business groups, environmentalists, government agencies and development institutions will be considered.
You will acquire the necessary skills to evaluate existing frameworks, inquire into environmental issues in organisations and industries, and develop sensitive business practices.
The programme provides excellent preparation for any corporate-focused environmental career. It provides a route to graduate membership of the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment. We encourage you to read about the past and present student experiences of our environment and sustainability programmes.
This programme is studied full-time over 12 months and part-time for up to 60 months. It consists of eight taught modules and a dissertation.
Example module listing
The following modules are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that not all modules described are compulsory and may be subject to teaching availability and/or student demand.
The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas:
Knowledge and understanding
Intellectual / cognitive skills
Professional practical skills
Key / transferable skills
Several high-profile guest lecturers have assisted with the delivery of some of the modules. CES modules make maximum use of guest lecturers, drawing on the practical skills and experience of key experts from government and industry to complement the theoretical components of the modules offered.
For example, Jonathon Porritt, former chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, gives a guest lecture on the Sustainable Development Applications module, analysing the standing of sustainable development in business and policy making.
The extensive expertise of CES academics and researchers is also drawn upon in modules. Professor Tim Jackson, advisor to the government and international bodies and author of the seminal book, Prosperity without Growth – economics for a finite planet–also lectures on some CES modules.
Full-time students are able to undertake an industrial placement module which enables them to spend six to twelve weeks working for a company or NGO, doing the type of work they will aim to find on graduation.
Examples of organisations at which recent industrial placements have taken place include:
Graduates go on to a diverse range of careers implementing sustainable development and dealing with the real environmental challenges facing humanity.
Recent examples include working as an energy efficiency officer for a local government, an environmental officer in multi-national chemical company, a sustainability advisor for a national television / radio station, an environmental consultant for an engineering consultancy, and a programme officer with a sustainability charity.
Other graduates use the research skills they developed to go on and do PhDs.
We often give our students the opportunity to acquire international experience during their degrees by taking advantage of our exchange agreements with overseas universities.
In addition to the hugely enjoyable and satisfying experience, time spent abroad adds a distinctive element to your CV.
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