MA in Corporate Communication

Course Overview

The MA in Corporate Communication at LSCT sits inside the Media, Journalism & Communication department and is a postgraduate qualification for senior in-house communications officers, agency directors and IR managers who want to step into head-of-comms or chief-of-staff territory. Delivered over one year full-time (or two years part-time) on-campus, fully online with live boardroom-style sessions, or by structured distance learning, the programme blends strategic communications, governance, disclosure and the ethics framework UK listed businesses and consultancies expect from senior practitioners.

Coursework is rooted in real UK corporate practice. From the first month you will be writing strategic communications papers, modelling stakeholder maps for complex M&A and ESG transitions, and presenting recommendations to assessment panels chaired by working CIPR Chartered Practitioners. The MA is positioned for senior practitioners and reads as a chartered-track credential.

The MA in Corporate Communication timetable is built around UK assessment realities: continuous coursework that produces the artefacts employers actually ask for, plus end-of-module case-based assessments rather than rote examinations. Tutors include working practitioners drawn from Fleet Street’s remaining presence and the Westminster lobby — not only academics — so the standard being marked against is the standard media employers apply at first interview. Students join one cohort intake per year, so the cohort moves through the programme together and forms the working network that matters when first media-sector job applications start going out.

Key Features

• Syllabus aligned to CIPR Chartered Practitioner, the IoD and PRCA senior-practitioner standards.
• Three study modes — on-campus, fully online with live boardroom-style sessions, or distance learning with quarterly residentials.
• Live ESG and reputation case set in a fictional UK FTSE-listed business.
• FCA disclosure module covering inside information, RNS and the Market Abuse Regulation.
• Crisis-communications war-game conducted under board-level time pressure.
• Mentor pairing with a serving UK FTSE or consultancy senior leader for the duration of the programme.

What You Will Learn

Graduates leave able to design and defend a senior communications strategy, run an FCA-side disclosure decision, manage a multi-stakeholder reputation crisis and lead a comms function aligned to board priorities. Modules include:

• Strategic Corporate Communication
• Stakeholder Engagement and Power Mapping
• FCA Disclosure and Market Abuse Regulation
• Investor Relations and Capital Markets
• Crisis Communications and Reputation Management
• ESG, Sustainability and Climate Communications
• Public Affairs and Government Relations
• Leadership of the Comms Function
• Research Methods and Dissertation

Who This Course Is For

• Senior in-house comms officers preparing for head-of-comms roles.
• Agency account directors moving into partner or managing-director track.
• IR managers and corporate-affairs leads building strategic credentials.
• International senior practitioners targeting UK FTSE and consultancy roles.

Career Pathways

Graduates feed UK FTSE-listed businesses, large consultancies, public-sector comms functions and international NGOs at director level. Typical roles include:

• Head of Corporate Communications
• Director of Investor Relations
• Senior Communications Manager (FTSE-listed)
• Public Affairs Director
• ESG Communications Lead
• Agency Account Director

Many graduates progress to CIPR Chartered Practitioner status, an Executive MBA or doctoral research in strategic communication.

One pragmatic note for prospective applicants: UK newsrooms, agencies and platforms have not stopped recruiting craft-confident practitioners, and the MA in Corporate Communication is designed to produce the documented portfolio that gets a CV read rather than only an academic transcript that does not. Coursework is structured so that, on graduation, you can hand a hiring manager three or four pieces of evidence — a project, a report, a deck, a documented intervention — that map directly to a published UK job description. Personal academic tutors also run two one-to-one careers conversations during the programme to keep that mapping honest.

Entry Requirements

• A UK 2:2 honours degree (or international equivalent) in communications, marketing, business, law or a cognate field.
• Applicants from non-cognate fields may apply with five years' senior professional experience in corporate communications, PR or investor relations.
• IELTS 6.5 overall (no band below 6.0) for non-native English speakers.
• A personal statement, two references and a research proposal of 500-800 words; a CV evidencing senior corporate-comms experience strengthens applications.

Why Study at LSCT

The London School of Commerce and Technology (LSCT) is a specialist higher-education provider based in central London and part of Harold International College. We teach in small cohorts so every student is visible to their tutor, run a single intake schedule that students can rely on, and partner with UK professional bodies so qualifications carry weight with employers. London puts Whitehall, the City, Silicon Roundabout, the Royal Courts of Justice, the West End and the NHS estate within a short tube ride of every classroom — and our students use that proximity in their projects, placements and graduate job hunts. For senior corporate-comms students that means board-style case sessions chaired by working CIPR Chartered Practitioners, City IR briefings and live FCA-disclosure scenarios drawn from real London businesses.

The teaching model is small-cohort and tutor-led on purpose. Discussion-based seminars, regular formative feedback and structured peer-review are how editorial-judgement is built — none of which scales to large lecture halls. Personal academic tutors are assigned at enrolment, and every student has a named contact for academic, pastoral and career-related questions. UK and international students mix in every cohort, which becomes an active strength in case sessions, group projects and the media-sector network that follows you after graduation.

Beyond classroom contact, the MA in Corporate Communication makes deliberate use of UK-specific resources that international comparators cannot reach as easily: open government data on the gov.uk estate, parliamentary publications, House of Commons Library briefings, Bank of England datasets, ONS releases and the open-access research output of British universities. Throughout the programme, tutors expect editorial writing — accurate, fair and defensible against an IPSO or Ofcom complaint. Graduates often describe leaving LSCT with a set of writing and analytical habits they continue to use across a UK career — not only a transcript and a portfolio.

Two further notes about studying the MA in Corporate Communication at LSCT: first, every cohort is given a dedicated employability portfolio template at induction, so the documentation you produce is in a hiring-manager-ready format from day one; second, alumni continue to attend tutor-led drop-ins from 2026 onwards, which means the network around the programme keeps growing rather than ending at graduation. Both decisions are deliberate and shape how the course feels to study.

Apply for MA in Corporate Communication

Specialise at postgraduate level with the MA in Corporate Communication. Click Enrol Now to apply; admissions teams reply within one working day with scholarship and funding guidance, including assessment of any prior CIPR or PRCA senior-practitioner credentials.