A BSc (Hons) Communications and Reputation Management degree covers how organisations build, defend and repair their standing with the people who matter to them. It sits at the meeting point of public relations, corporate communications, crisis management and stakeholder strategy, and it has become considerably more serious as a discipline since reputational damage started travelling at the speed of social media.
This is a strategic communications degree rather than a marketing one. Marketing is largely concerned with selling to customers. Reputation management is concerned with every audience an organisation has, including regulators, employees, investors, journalists and communities, and with what happens when something goes wrong.
What you study
Three years, often with a placement in an agency or in-house communications team.
- Year one: principles of communication, public relations practice, media landscapes, writing for communications, and organisational behaviour.
- Year two: corporate communication strategy, stakeholder and issues management, digital and social media communication, media relations, and research and evaluation.
- Year three: crisis and reputation management, corporate social responsibility and ethics, internal communication and employee engagement, international and cross-cultural communication, and a major campaign project or dissertation.
Crisis simulation exercises are the highlight of most courses and the thing worth asking about when comparing universities.
Entry requirements from Nepal
Requirements differ between universities and can move from one intake to the next, so read the following as the usual range rather than a guarantee. We check your documents against each university current criteria before anything is submitted.
- Academic: +2, A-Levels or IB at roughly 60 per cent and above, with a foundation year available where needed. No specific subject is required, but this is a writing-heavy degree and strong English matters throughout.
- English: IELTS 6.0 overall is common, with some universities asking 6.5 given the writing load. Many of our partner universities also accept PTE Academic, Duolingo, or a Medium of Instruction letter from Tribhuvan, Pokhara or Kathmandu University. See our IELTS score comparison and the routes that do not require IELTS.
- Study gap: most universities accept a gap, commonly up to five years and sometimes up to ten, as long as you can account for the time.
- Finance: the student visa requires evidence of your first year tuition plus living costs, currently 1,529 pounds a month for London and 1,171 pounds a month elsewhere, held for nine months. Our page on UK university fees for international students sets out the detail.
Where the degree leads
- Public relations agencies and in-house communications teams
- Corporate affairs and issues management
- Internal and employee communications
- Public affairs and government communications
- Charity and NGO communications
- Social media and content strategy
- Investor relations, for those who add a finance grounding
Is it the right choice?
Communications is a competitive, network-driven industry where internships matter as much as grades, and where writing quality in English is the hard entry requirement. International students who write well and take every placement opportunity do get in. Those who do not build a portfolio during the degree tend to find the market difficult.
Students weighing this against a marketing degree should note that marketing generally has the wider graduate market, while this degree is the specialist choice for anyone drawn to the strategic and crisis side of the profession.
Where Real Dreams comes in
We have been placing students from Nepal in UK universities since 2003. Bring us your academic documents and we will be candid about your prospects for communications and reputation management rather than encouraging you towards whichever university pays the most commission. That includes telling you when a different course would serve you better.
Counselling is free and there is no obligation. Our offices are in Kathmandu, Chitwan, Pokhara, Butwal and Bhairahawa, with a further office in London. Get in touch when you are ready, start an application, or look through the full course list.
