McMaster launches a new Bachelor of Professional Communication (BPC)

Our world is changing at light speed and it need a new class of highly qualified, well-educated, ethical professional communicators.

This change is creating the need for highly competent and well-educated professional communicators, whose role in winning battles in the court of public opinion will work in parallel with lawyers who fight in the court of law.

McMaster University, in partnership with Mohawk College, is responding to this need for highly qualified, entrepreneurial leaders in professional communication by launching a brand new, highly selective Honours Bachelor of Professional Communication, pending ministry approval.

Business, government, culture and the not-for-profit sectors are being transformed from top to bottom by digital communication technologies like social media and smartphones. All of these sectors require a new class of professional communicators who combine public relations, communications management, journalism, advocacy and market research.

Media, digital communication and mobile smartphones are transforming the way we do business, practice politics, raise money, create culture and are governed.

The BPC will combine several things:

  • Training in finance and accounting, marketing, communications management and entrepreneurship
  • A rich liberal arts approach to professional communication, steeped in ethics and a critical understanding of our culture
  • Extensive training in communication measurement: polling, audience research, cognitive and behavioural, content analysis, surveys, focus groups, ethnography, semiotics and many more.
  • Cutting edge training in photography, videography, mobile app and web design, professional/journalistic writing and project management
  • A mandatory full-term, for-credit work placement in the government, not-for-profit or private sectors
  • An honours project tied to research or a campaign in the real world of professional communication practice
We are convinced that the first graduates of the BPC will not only be market-ready when they graduate, but that they will be market leaders among junior practitioners of public relations.

The characteristics of a successful applicant to the BPC:

  • High Academic Achievement is a MUST
  • Demonstrated ability in writing or another form of digital or print creative production such as photography, video and audio
  • A mature personal outlook and a desire to make a difference in the world
  • Personal qualities of leadership, enterprising and/or advocacy and activism.

Who can apply?

  • Applicants completing their high school diploma.
  • Applicants who have completed a university degree or college diploma
  • Applicants who are in the midst of a degree and who wish to transfer into the BPC
To gain some insight into the thinking that went into the creation of the BPC, please click on our white paper, published in the Journal of Professional Communication.

We invite you to spread the word about the BPC to anyone you think would be an ethical, enterprising and bold professional communication practitioner.

 

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *