Programme Specifications

Programme summary

1. Programme Aims

• To enable students to gain a systematic and critical understanding of communications and cultural policies in a changing global context
• To foster students’ ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about communications and cultural policies in global and national contexts
• To develop students’ skills and competencies in a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of communication practices as well as cultural policies in different cultural industry settings.
• To enable students to interpret, evaluate and apply advanced knowledge of communications and cultural policy in a critical way.
• To prepare students for employment in diverse professional environments through a combination of independent work and exposure to public and private sectors.

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

• UK Quality Code for Higher Education, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, April 2012, especially Part A: Setting and maintaining academic standards:

◦   The Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ), the QAA, August 2008

◦   Master’s Degree Characteristics, the QAA, March 2010

◦   The Higher Education Credit Framework for England, the QAA, August 2008

• The Quality Code, Part B: Assuring and enhancing academic quality

◦   Chapter B1: Programme Design, Development and Approval

◦   Chapter B3: Learning and Teaching

◦   Chapter B4: Enabling student development and achievement

◦   Chapter B6: Assessment of students

• Benchmark Statement for Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies, the QAA, 2008

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to explain in a systematic, comprehensive and critical way:

K1.       The major traditions, theories and frameworks of inquiry relevant to the analysis of communications and cultural policy; 

K2.       The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about the social, economic, political and historical context of communications and cultural policy; 

K3.       The development and context of policy making in different contexts; 

K4.       The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about the implications of communications and cultural policies for democracy, equality, and the economy;

K5.       The major perspectives in the rapidly changing areas of national, regional and transnational policies surrounding information and communication infrastructure; 

K6.       The range of relevant research methods employed in the analysis of communications and cultural policies in different national, regional and transnational contexts; 

K7        The ways in which study of a complementary subject deepens knowledge of the influence and operation of communications and cultural policy.

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to: 

 C1.       Appraise the work of major thinkers, debates and intellectual paradigms within the fields of communications, cultural policy and socio-technical change 

C2.       Design and carry out appropriate research strategies to address the issues they   have selected for sustained investigation in self-chosen projects; 

C3.       Critically evaluate new and emerging trends in the field of communication and cultural policy to interrogate both common sense understandingand learned knowledge in relevant areas of inquiry; 

C4.       Discuss and evaluate historical transformations in global communications and their social, political, economic and cultural contexts and wield this understanding in analysing historical and structural patterns of socio-technical and political economic change;

C5.       Critique research findings and the issues it raises reflexively.

b. Subject-specific practical skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able, with reference to globalisation, communications, media culture, to: 

P1.      Generate research data according to appraised procedures and methods; 

P2.      Independently organise, classify and critically evaluate information gathered in the course of their projects and assignments; 

P3.      Apply advanced concepts and theories drawn from communications and associated disciplines to empirical evidence relevant to communication and policy studies; 

P4.      Locate and interpret industry practices, data and policy documents.

c. Key transferable skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

T1.       Critically evaluate a range of academic and industry sources;

T2.       Communicate effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences;

T3.       Analyse and use qualitative and quantitative research techniques

T4.       Plan, organise and manage, with appropriate supervision, a significant self-directed project; 

T5.       Work flexibly, creatively and independently, displaying a high degree of self-direction and initiative;

4. Programme structure

Students must choose and pass 4 optional modules to complete the MA Communication and Cultural Policy. Students will be required to complete 4 core modules in Semester one and 4 optional modules in Semester two in addition to the dissertation.

5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award

In order to be eligible for the award, candidates must satisfy the requirements of Regulation XXI. 

All modules available in the Special Assessment Period (SAP) unless specified in the Module Specification.

6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the Purposes of Final Degree Classification

Not Applicable