This course offers a hands-on practical approach to this exciting discipline, underpinned by a strong academic foundation.You will gain a solid grounding in the theory and practice of Public Relations and Digital Communications, preparing you for a career in this constantly changing and evolving industry.
A key element of the course will focus on content creation – an emerging area within Public Relations and Digital Communication. You will benefit from a multimedia approach, learning how to use different techniques – including social media, video and content management – to optimise the effectiveness of communicating in a digital age.
As well as exploring the history of PR and how its relationship with journalism has developed and evolved over the years, you will examine the ethical issues surrounding PR and the ways PR can contribute to the management and protection of an organisation or individual’s reputation.
You will learn from lecturers with strong, relevant professional backgrounds and have the chance to undertake placements in the industry.
This programme offers you the opportunity to focus on digital communications strategies as well as more traditional public relations practice.
This 12 month postgraduate course aims to produce highly-skilled graduates who are able to operate professionally in today’s PR and digital communication-related industries.
You will develop cutting-edge knowledge and understanding of the role and influence of PR and digital communication within contemporary society, and the demands on and opportunities for PR and digital communication professionals.
This course will involve developing a professional level of practical skills and understanding in the devising and implementation of PR campaign strategies To develop systematic and advanced research techniques for the evaluation and analysis of critical texts and aspects of current research and scholarship at the forefront of the field of Public Relations and digital communications.
In the first trimester, you will study Public Relations & Journalism and Content Creation modules, which will provide a solid basis on which to develop your skills.
The modules you will study in the second trimester are Understanding PR Campaigns, which looks at case studies and strategies, and Professional PR Practice, which incorporates an industry work placement.
In the third trimester, you will work on a Major Project or a Dissertation.
Public Relations is one of the fastest growing professions in the UK, employing 62,000 people in 2015.
The importance of the digital economy, and the opportunities and challenges it presents, has been noted by a Lords Select Committee. Its report, entitled Make or Break: The UK’s Digital Future, emphasises the urgent need, at HE level, for industry input, so that graduates are learning job-relevant digital skills. This illustrates the employability value of a postgraduate programme in Public Relations and Digital Communications.
The programme would prepare graduates for work within PR and Digital Communication related industries and feeds into this skills gap in the PR and communications industries. However, it will also provide key transferable skills that are increasingly sought after in today’s job market.
Graduates may go on to secure jobs in the PR and digital communication sectors and also undertake roles in content creation – for example, copywriting, SEO and analytics
Students will be encouraged to take advantage of work placement opportunities which will also be available as part of the programme and there will also be a focus on working with industry partners. We have links with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) as well as a number of organisations (NHS, BBC, ITV, Salford Red Devils, Sale Sharks Rugby Union Club, Manchester United and Manchester City Football Clubs, plus independent PR and Comms agencies), which could be developed further to incorporate more PR, social media and digital communications roles.
Graduates can undertake a postgraduate degree by research at MPhil (two years full-time) or PhD level (three years full-time). This could occur in any field of communications, journalism and media. At Salford the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre and the International Media Research Centre contain a range of internationally leading academics able to supervise research degrees in their broad field.
For more details, visit:
http://www.smmp.salford.ac.uk/international-media-centre
http://www.smmp.salford.ac.uk/page/communication-cultural-and-media-studies
The communications sector has changed dramatically in the past 5 years, as mobile internet, smartphones and associated apps such as social media, commerce and digital media have spurred an information revolution.
This programme responds to the growth of networks and mobile internet applications, allowing you to study traditional communications theory alongside modules dealing with network security and the protocols for high-speed switches and routers.
You’ll build your knowledge of new developments in data-centric networking and the growing trend in cloud computing and online services, such as web-search, video content hosting and distribution, social networking and large-scale computations. Optional modules will allow you to specialise in topics appropriate to your interests and career plans.
It’s a chance to gain specialist knowledge and skills that will be in demand over a wide range of disciplines, from the traditional communications industries to banking, finance and commerce.
Specialist facilities
Our School is an exciting and stimulating environment where you’ll learn from leading researchers in specialist facilities. Depending on your research project, these may include our Keysight Technologies wireless communications lab, as well as labs for embedded systems, power electronics and drives, ultrasound and bioelectronics.
There’s also a Terahertz photonics lab, class 100 semiconductor cleanroom, traffic generators and analysers, FPGA development tools, sensor network test beds. We have facilities for electron-beam lithography and ceramic circuit fabrication – and a III-V semiconductor molecular beam epitaxy facility.
The Faculty is also home to the £4.3 million EPSRC National Facility for Innovative Robotic Systems, set to make us a world leader in robot design and construction.
The programme is built around a set of core modules that develop your knowledge across both semesters. You’ll build your understanding of topics like communication network design, high-speed internet architecture, optical communications networks, data communications and the issues surrounding network security.
If you have no experience of C programming, you’ll also take a module that will equip you with these skills. However, if you do, you could choose to take a specialist module on software development instead. In addition, you’ll choose from optional modules on topics such as digital media engineering, cellular mobile communication systems and even applications of this technology in the medical sector.
To build your understanding of the global electronics industry, you’ll also complete a dissertation. This could take the form of a business, manufacturing or outsourcing plan, a proposal for research funding or an essay on a specific aspect of the industry.
Over the summer months you’ll also work on your research project. This gives you the chance to work as an integral part of one of our active research groups, focusing on a specialist topic in computer science and selecting the appropriate research methods.
Want to find out more about your modules?
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
Our groundbreaking research feeds directly into teaching, and you’ll have regular contact with staff who are at the forefront of their disciplines. You’ll have regular contact with them through lectures, seminars, tutorials, small group work and project meetings.
Independent study is also important to the programme, as you develop your problem-solving and research skills as well as your subject knowledge.
You’ll be assessed using a range of techniques including case studies, technical reports, presentations, in-class tests, assignments and exams. Optional modules may also use alternative assessment methods.
Career prospects are excellent. There is a wide range of career opportunities in all aspects of the communications industry, and the skills learned here will also be generic to allow employment in other sectors such as finance, banking, general manufacturing, etc.
Graduates from our School have pursued careers with organisations like Cisco Systems, General Electric, Huawei, Ericsson Telecommunications, Intel Corp., Technology and Strategy Board, Wabtec Rail UK, AECOM and Orascom Telecom.
Some graduates also choose the path of academic research and therefore subsequently undertake a PhD.
You’ll have access to the wide range of engineering and computing careers resources held by our Employability team in our dedicated Employability Suite. You’ll have the chance to attend industry presentations book appointments with qualified careers consultants and take part in employability workshops. Our annual Engineering and Computing Careers Fairs provide further opportunities to explore your career options with some of the UK’s leading employers.
The University's Careers Centre also 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.
The Institute for Digital Communications (IDCOM) is the UK's leading research institute in signal processing and communications and is home to the Li-Fi research and development centre. We have three major centres of activity; signal processing, communications systems and tomographic imaging. Our programme of research delivers world leading research in signal and image processing and communications from fundamental theoretical and algorithmic work through to its translation to specific audio, imaging, radar/sonar, and communications applications.
The Institute has excellent research facilities, including state-of-the-art computing systems and laboratories for agile tomography, and audio signal processing, as well as the Li-Fi research and development centre for visible light communications. Internationally recognised for our research on communications systems and signal processing, we offer research topics including: green radio; visible light communications; cognitive radio; compressive sensing; distributed sensor signal processing; and agile tomography.
IDCOM holds the only UK Research Council platform award in sensor signal processing, in collaboration with the joint research institute in signal and image processing and Heriot-Watt University, recognising our world leading research status.
The development of transferable skills is a vital part of postgraduate training and a vibrant, interdisciplinary training programme is offered to all research students by the University’s Institute for Academic Development (IAD). The programme concentrates on the professional development of postgraduates, providing courses directly linked to postgraduate study.
Courses run by the IAD are free and have been designed to be as flexible as possible so that you can tailor the content and timing to your own requirements.
Our researchers are strongly encouraged to present their research at conferences and in journal during the course of their PhD.
Every year, the Graduate School organises a Postgraduate Research Conference to showcase the research carried out by students across the Research Institutes
Our researchers are also encouraged and supported to attend transferable skills courses provided by organisations such as the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The Institute has excellent research facilities, including state-of-the-art computing systems and laboratories for usability engineering, audio signal processing and visible light communications.
Digital signal processing (DSP) is at the core of the communications revolution. Research is constantly being carried out to develop new DSP algorithms, allowing mobile broadband services, ‘Internet of Things’ applications and other technologies to be delivered to a growing number of users.
This programme will give you a thorough understanding of different aspects of DSP and as it relates to the communications landscape, as well as specialist knowledge from your choice of optional modules.
Our DSP lab will give you hands-on experience using the DSP technology that can be found in computers, cellular phones, GPS and other technologies, and you’ll learn from expert researchers at the forefront of their fields.
You’ll also benefit from specialist industrial lectures, allowing you to relate the theoretical and design aspects of communications and signal processing to practical problems and real-world constraints.
School Facilities
Our School is an exciting and stimulating environment where you’ll learn from leading researchers in specialist facilities. These include our Keysight Technologies wireless communications lab, as well as labs for embedded systems, power electronics and drives, ultrasound and bioelectronics.
There’s also a Terahertz photonics lab, class 100 semiconductor cleanroom, traffic generators and analysers, FPGA development tools, sensor network test beds. We have facilities for electron-beam lithography and ceramic circuit fabrication – and a III-V semiconductor molecular beam epitaxy facility. The Faculty is also home to the £4.3 million EPSRC National Facility for Innovative Robotic Systems, set to make us a world leader in robot design and construction.
Throughout the year you’ll study a set of core modules that give you an in-depth understanding of DSP, wireless communications, different optical communications networks and the complex issues around network security. If you don’t have any experience of c-programming you’ll also take a module that develops these skills; alternatively, you can choose between this module and another on software development.
You’ll also select optional modules that are tailored to your own interests or career plans – you could focus on embedded microprocessor systems, high-speed internet architecture or other topics. To build your understanding of the global electronics industry, you’ll also complete a dissertation. This could take the form of a business, manufacturing or outsourcing plan, a proposal for research funding or an essay on a specific aspect of the industry.
Over the summer months you’ll also work on your research project. This gives you the chance to work as an integral part of one of our active research groups, focusing on a specialist topic in computer science and selecting the appropriate research methods.
Want to find out more about your modules?
Take a look at the Communications and Signal Processing module descriptions for more detail on what you will study.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
Our groundbreaking research feeds directly into teaching, and you’ll have regular contact with staff who are at the forefront of their disciplines. You’ll have regular contact with them through lectures, seminars, tutorials, small group work and project meetings. Independent study is also important to the programme, as you develop your problem-solving and research skills as well as your subject knowledge.
You’ll be assessed using a range of techniques including case studies, technical reports, presentations, in-class tests, assignments and exams. Optional modules may also use alternative assessment methods.
The research project is one of the most satisfying elements of this course. It allows you to apply what you’ve learned to a piece of research focusing on a real-world problem, and it can be used to explore and develop your specific interests.
Recent projects on the MSc in Communications and Signal Processing include:
On completing this course, you will have obtained the skills that will lead to employment in any area of the communications/signal processing industry including optical networking, DSP design and implementation, cellular mobile, RF planning, broadband systems and general communications research and development.
Graduates from our School have gone on to work for organisations such as the National Grid, Ericsson Telecommunications, Cisco Systems, AECOM, Deep Sea Electronics, Huawei, Intel Corp., the Technology and Strategy Board and many more.
This course is also an excellent base from which to pursue a PhD and possibly an academic career.
