Course description

The highlights

• Once you've completed your Foundation Year, you can continue on the general BA (Hons) Marketing degree or choose:
  • BSc (Hons) Digital Marketing
  • BA (Hons) Marketing, PR and Advertising
• This marketing degree is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), meaning if you graduate with a 2:2 or higher, you’ll gain exemptions towards CIM Certificate and Diploma modules to help fast-track your professional marketing career
• We equip you with the skills, confidence and creativity to shape an organisation’s marketing strategy and help it develop a customer-led approach to business opportunities.
• You’ll learn how to combine all elements of the marketing mix and how to get the best from in-house teams or outsourced agencies.
• You will tackle real marketing projects for employers and then develop this experience through placements and internships.

Foundation Year - helping you to achieve more

Including a foundation year as part of your four-year study programme will give you a head start in your academic and professional life. The foundation year offers the chance to strengthen your skills, knowledge and confidence – with extensive support from our expert staff – before you advance to stage one of your honours degree. It could also be beneficial if you are planning a career change and want to get to grips with aspects of subjects which are new to you.

Our degrees with a foundation year are continuous, meaning that you won’t need to apply again once you have successfully completed the first year.

Marketing – your questions answered

In the below video, Senior Lecturer, Devi Gill, answers some of the most frequently asked questions about Marketing at the University of Derby.

Marketing is exciting and fast-paced and is now relevant to almost all organisations, whether they operate in the private, public or third sector. Every business has a requirement to market their goods or services. Some have in house teams that create campaigns, and others outsource them to creative agencies. However, all have a requirement to plan, implement, and monitor marketing activity if a business is to be successful or profitable.

With the rise of digital media, the number and variety of marketing channels has grown. This increasingly complex landscape has had a knock-on effect on jobs, creating a need for more specialist roles in sub-sectors such as content marketing, affiliate marketing, social media management, search engine optimisation and data analysis. We have responded to these changes in the profession through our modules and courses, to reflect the need for these specialist skills.

We equip you with the skills, confidence and creativity to shape an organisation’s marketing strategy and help it develop a customer-led approach to business opportunities. You’ll learn how to combine all elements of the marketing mix and how to get the best from in-house teams or outsourced agencies

CIM accreditation

This degree is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the leading professional body for marketers worldwide. This means that CIM has independently assessed our marketing degree and is happy that it reflects their priorities and high standards. CIM accreditation is a quality mark that employers look for

Real world experience

On this marketing degree, we take you beyond the classroom, giving you opportunities for real world experience. Thanks to our strong links with employers, you'll get the chance to work on real marketing projects, meeting clients and presenting your proposed solutions to their challenges. Recently, our students found themselves drawing up plans to:

• promote new events
• raise a company's profile through social media
• attract more visitors to a destination, and
• create a brand identity for a pub-based arts venue.

Using our industry contacts, we'll support you to find internships and placements, provide a varied programme of interesting guest speakers and draw on fascinating real world case studies to bring marketing concepts and principles to life.

Year in industry and study abroad

In addition to the 30 hours of work experience that everyone is expected to undertake in their second year, you also have the opportunity to take a placement year between years two and three of your degree. This would super-charge your employability and your prospects after graduation. We can help you find a placement and provide support during your year away.

Or why not study abroad for a semester? It's a great chance to experience a different country and culture, perhaps develop an additional language, make new connections and bring back new ideas.

How you will learn

Our teaching methods will be varied, interactive and engaging. You will take part in:

• Lectures and seminars — led by our own tutors as well as occasionally, by guest speakers from the marketing world
• Individual and group-based practical assignments, such as creating advertising slogans, blogs, infographics, social media profiles, videos and TV commercials. Many of these will be for real company briefs.
• Visits to exhibitions, trade fairs and companies
• Placements and internships
• Research projects.

How you are assessed

You will be assessed through coursework, which will incorporate individual assignments as well as group tasks. These focus on applying what you have learned to real business scenarios and producing the kind of work that might be expected in a marketing role, for example:

• Written reports based around research, including data and case studies
• Visual presentations
• Creative outputs such as infographics, short advertisements, films or bespoke projects for clients
• Online assessments

At levels 4 and 5, you will take part in a lot of group work, which prepares you for the marketing workplace, but at level 6, you will be working independently more so you can deepen your research and critical analysis skills.

Who you'll meet

Dr Devi Gill - Devi teaches across a range of modules in the areas of digital marketing, branding, market sensing, and design and creativity for marketers. Her research interests lie in the areas of brand heritage, authenticity and corporate social responsibility.

Tracy Powell Tracy's background is in Strategic Management specialising in Marketing and Operations. Tracey still works in practice as a business mentor, working on a range of strategic projects applying digital marketing and consumer behaviour theories to improve business performance.

Dr Amir Modjtahedi - Amir teaches modules in the areas of marketing operations management, marketing research skills, data analysis, and quality management systems. His research interests lie in improving productivity for organisations by adapting existing technologies and considering the impact of emerging technologies.