Marketing and Public Relations

Marketing and public relations are two disciplines that operate at the interface between organisations and their audiences, each concerned with how organisations communicate who they are and what they offer, and how they build and maintain relationships with the people and communities that matter to them. Marketing is concerned with understanding customers and markets, developing products and services that meet needs, setting prices, choosing channels, and communicating through advertising, content, digital platforms, and other means. Public relations focuses on reputation management, media relations, crisis communication, and the building of trust with a broader range of stakeholders beyond immediate customers, including media, governments, communities, and the general public.

At Leeds Beckett University, this three-year full-time programme places employability at the heart of its approach, as the current description reflects, giving you a wealth of opportunities to network and work with potential employers and industry professionals through lectures, workshops, and placements. This practical orientation is well suited to disciplines where professional contacts, portfolio work, and direct industry experience matter enormously in the graduate labour market. You will develop skills in marketing strategy, digital marketing and analytics, content creation, consumer behaviour, brand management, media relations, public affairs, and crisis communication, alongside the business and commercial awareness that allows marketing and PR professionals to operate effectively within organisational contexts.

The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, providing exceptional breadth of professional and international experience. The year abroad gives you exposure to marketing and communications in a different national context, while the placement year provides direct immersion in professional practice.

Graduates from marketing and public relations programmes work in marketing agencies, in-house marketing and communications teams, PR consultancies, public affairs organisations, social media and digital agencies, journalism, and brand management across every sector of the economy. Postgraduate study in marketing, public relations, communications, or digital marketing supports those wishing to develop specialist expertise.