How is the MA Professional Communication and Leadership different from a CIPR chartered qualification?

The CIPR chartered route is a professional body credential focused on practice standards. The MA Professional Communication and Leadership is a research-track academic degree at master's level with deeper strategic content and a dissertation. Many senior communicators hold both — the CIPR for practice recognition, the MA for academic and strategic depth.

What kind of dissertation do students write on the MA Professional Communication and Leadership?

Applied research, 12,000–15,000 words, on a real strategic question. Recent dissertations have covered executive narrative coherence under organisational change, regulator-relationship management in regulated industries, internal listening at scale, and crisis-response governance across sectors.

Does the MA Professional Communication and Leadership include public affairs?

Yes. A core module covers UK public affairs — Westminster, Whitehall, devolved governments, regulator landscape — and senior public-affairs executives are among the regular industry masterclass contributors.

Is the MA Professional Communication and Leadership recognised by UK employers?

Yes. It is a UK-recognised master's degree taught in London with substantial senior-industry input. The credential and the applied dissertation give graduates exactly the kind of evidence UK employers look for when filling director-of-communications and head-of-function roles.

MA Professional Communication & Leadership | LSJHML London | Harold International College of London

Course Overview

The MA Professional Communication and Leadership at the London School of Journalism, Humanities & Modern Languages (LSJHML) is a one-year UK postgraduate degree for senior communicators and aspiring directors of communications. You will study strategic communications, executive influence, organisational change and the political economy of corporate and public-sector communications — and produce a 12,000-to-15,000 word applied dissertation on a real strategic communications question facing your own organisation or a partner.

This MA is for the person ready to be in the room when the decisions are made. By the end of the MA Professional Communication and Leadership you can lead a communications function, advise a chief executive on positioning and risk, run a regulatory or reputational moment, and engage credibly with both scholarly and professional conversation in the field.

Key Features

Strategic communications leadership core — vision, function design, team management, board engagement.
Executive influence and counsel module — advising chief executives, framing strategic choices, narrative coherence.
Organisational change comms module — change planning, employee voice, leadership cascade, listening at scale.
Crisis and reputation module — pre-mortems, escalation, regulator and stakeholder management, post-incident review.
Industry-led masterclasses from senior directors of communications across government, regulated industries, charities, FTSE corporates and major NGOs.
12,000–15,000 word applied dissertation on a real strategic communications question.

What You Will Learn

The MA Professional Communication and Leadership is structured around the working life of a director of communications. You graduate able to lead a function strategically, counsel executives credibly, run reputational and regulatory moments under pressure, and engage with scholarly and industry conversation on the field.

Strategic communications planning — OASIS, RACE, GCS Government Communication Service frameworks.
Executive counsel — advising senior leaders, framing strategic choices, narrative coherence.
Stakeholder management — political, regulatory, employee, customer, investor audiences.
Organisational change communications — planning, sequencing, listening at scale.
Crisis and reputation management — pre-mortems, escalation, recovery, post-incident review.
Public affairs and political communications — UK Westminster, Whitehall, devolved governments, regulator landscape.
Measurement at strategic level — AMEC, share-of-voice, behaviour change, outcome-driven evaluation.
Ethics of strategic communications — disclosure, transparency, regulatory advertising standards.

Who This MA Is For

Senior communicators stepping into director-of-communications roles.
Press office leads and account directors moving into in-house strategic communications.
Senior civil servants in the Government Communication Service wanting structured academic credentialing.
Career-changers from journalism, public affairs or policy entering senior in-house leadership roles.

Career Pathways

Graduates of the MA Professional Communication and Leadership move into senior leadership roles across UK communications. Typical post-MA destinations include:

Director of Communications (corporate, public sector, third sector)
Head of Internal Communications (large employer, regulated industry)
Strategy Adviser (in-house communications, public-affairs consultancy)
Engagement Director (charity, professional body, regulator)
Executive Communications Lead (CEO office, chief-executive support)
Director of Public Affairs (in-house, consultancy)

The MA also serves as a launchpad for doctoral research in strategic communications and for senior leadership roles in major organisations.

Entry Requirements

A UK 2:2 honours degree (or international equivalent) in a related subject, OR a 2:2 in any subject with two years of relevant professional experience.
IELTS 6.5 overall (no band below 6.0) for non-native English speakers.
Personal statement (max 1 page) outlining your motivation, relevant experience and intended specialism.
Two academic or professional references.
Applicants without a related undergraduate degree may be considered with significant industry experience and a written sample.

Why Study at LSJHML

The London School of Journalism, Humanities & Modern Languages is a specialist higher-education provider based in central London. Our programmes are designed in dialogue with working professionals — journalists, translators, civil servants, academics, broadcasters, editors, publishers and policy researchers — so what you learn in seminar on Monday is what your future employer is using on Tuesday. We deliberately keep cohorts small, give every student named tutor support, and treat employability as a structural part of every programme rather than an optional add-on.

London is the work — politics, courts, capital markets, theatre, broadcasting, publishing, public service, the global press. Your studies are taught in the same square mile where the stories you read about happen. Whether you join us on-campus, online or by distance learning, the city is your classroom and our industry network is your launchpad.