Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?

This MA Advertising course has been developed to mirror today’s industry. Working closely with professionals they’ve made sure the course helps you to develop the skills and knowledge the industry is looking for. Using the pillars of sustainability, inclusivity, and social responsibility, you’ll be taught an important mix of branding, planning, and advertising.

All this make graduates of this MA very employable in any branch of advertising, branding or communication industries, in either a creative, account management, strategic or planning capacity because of the up-to-date nature and wide scope of the curriculum offered.

Here at BNU they don’t just teach you how to apply creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Instead they teach you how to approach a creative problem with insightful planning, research, and transmedia storytelling to ensure brand advocacy and long-lasting social missions.You’ll benefit from unrivalled industry links, workshops, mentoring, advice, placements, internships, and job opportunities. There will also be selected alumni and agencies that will be part of the MA’s Hyreus Scheme, who will provide you with an industrial practitioner as a guide, in addition to their University Personal Tutor.

They may also provide internships and or placements should the student prove suitable. This presents students with an opportunity to build a one-to-one relationship with an influential figure from industry, who will act as adviser, reference point, critical sounding board, and ultimately a potential employer. This opportunity can be further bolstered by contacts made through research, whilst on an agency experience or by working on agency briefs such as the one for Portfolio Academy.

What facilities can you use?

To aid your development you will learn practical skills and experience both digital and traditional processes and technologies. These range from Adobe Creative Suite to letterpress and silkscreen printing. Photography and film making are integral to most things BNU do.

You’ll have access to their state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including:

• Photography studios
• Mac Suites
• Letterpress machines
• Film and TV cameras
• Screen Printing facilities
• Dedicated specialist technicians
• Printing facilities
• And their extensive library

What will you study?

To become part of the future of advertising, the communication you will create will help shape the more socially aware and culturally important world of creative communication, turning you into an asset for any 21st century communications company.

You will learn how to use your curious mind to create sustainable and socially aware communication. You’ll look at how to create active campaigns across a variety of channels, generating fresh content and how to improve consumer engagement, following and reach.

You’ll delve headfirst into the world of advertising, looking at everything from transmedia storytelling, brand advocacy, branded entertainment, push and pull conversations, ideation, and insights, to planning, pitching, research, social mission advertising, brand creation and sustainable branding and marketing.

How will you be taught and assessed?

This MA is offered as a blended learning experience, with many lectures taking place online, providing flexibility for both course related work-based placements or to help students pursue their own and industry opportunities.

With the breadth of diverse projects and industry influences this is essential for personal and professional development. You’ll gain an integrated and gradual learning experience throughout which the various teaching methods, experiences and industry exposure contributing to this.

All taught subjects are translated into practical brief-led projects, which are then contextualised in industry through regular workshops. You’ll be learning and gaining feedback from a host of different sources which enables them to create contacts, links, and opportunities to enter the real world of advertising at every stage of the course.

Written assessments will be accompanied by face-to-face delivery of research presentations, creative presentations, portfolio work, final pitch presentations. Some of these will involve additional assessment from visiting tutors and alumni or agency personal if the work being assessed is an agency-based project.

Formative feedback will be given at various key stages of every project to help with your development.

Throughout the programme you’ll be encouraged to personally evaluate your work and book, ensuring you improve a self-evaluative critical approach to all aspects of work evolved through application of creative advertising processes - judged against creative intentions. Self-assessment is an important part of your growth during the course and is implicit within tutorial teaching.

You’ll also work on some non-assessed briefs to allow you to get as broad an experience as possible and experiment without detrimental results. If some of these are for working agency practitioners, via the Hyreus Scheme, this will further your potential intern opportunities and final employment chances.

Feedback is an integral part of this approach, and you will always get advice and support in how to take your work forward. Feedback from as many sources as possible is the aim of the strategy and this comes both from tutors and industry practitioners.

You’ll graduate with a well-rounded portfolio ready for potential employers.

What are your career prospects? 

After graduating from this Postgraduate degree, you will leave with the skills and knowledge to be a critically aware and logical thinking professional that understands existing and emerging forms of new strategies and ways of working to lead creative innovation across the advertising industry.

Upon completion of this degree, you will be qualified for a number of roles, including:

• Creative
• Art Director
• Copywriter
• Planner
• Strategist
• Account Manager
• Brand Consultant
• Producer
• Designer
• Graphic Designer
• Content Creator
• Social Media Manager