A New Hope

A new term is about to start here at The University of Fun, and I notice that recruitment onto the BA in Digital Marketing Communications programme currently sits at 4 students. On top of that, I also notice that a number of students are opting to transfer in the second year of their degree programme from the Digital Marketing degree to a more traditional marketing and advertising programme that I also teach on.

Why might this be? Why aren’t people flocking to do the Digital programme (unlike the Masters programme of the same name which is pretty much “full”)? It’s difficult to understand why, when there are clear signs of a continued business leaning towards digital away from traditional. In these enlightened and recessional times, we keep seeing a path away from unmeasurable offline mechanisms towards more quantifiable digital communication levers.

Standing on my soapbox – I blame the teachers and careers officers in schools who have to kept up with the state of the industry. I blame the candidates for not researching the industry themselves and thinking that it’ll just be one long carry on into media. I blame the industry for not marketing itself to potential new recruits.

And I blame myself for not getting to enough careers fairs, schools and open days. But there are only 24 hours in a day.

You folks out there are going to have to help me out here and start pushing this industry not just to your potential customers but to your future workforce, because at the moment they don’t seem like they’re convinced.

Is my MSc too expensive?

I am the course leader for the MSc in Digital Marketing Communications at MMU Business School. This is a prestigious programme which combines the very latest new practice training from E-consultancy with academic support and development from our experienced teaching staff at the University.

This part-time course (which last 30 months) is hard work for students. There is a significant amount of training, study and assessment. Students have to engage with each other, trainers and teaching staff on a very regular basis. It’s tough and the rewards at the end of the programme mean that students can look at their achievement with some pride.

The cost of the programme is £3450 +VAT for year 1, £3450 + VAT for year 2 and £1850 for the final consultancy dissertation.

It’s quite a lot of money for a course, just less than your average MBA but obviously more than a bog standard MA in something or other. And this is the rub. Is it too expensive? As a professional MSc, it doesn’t attract any government subsidy unlike certain other programmes. It contains siginificant industrial and commercial know-how that you don’t get in your bog standard MA. And you need to be working in a cognate profession to get the most out of it.

It’s the way of things to come. The price reflects the real cost of running a programme of this nature and the return that a student gets from this programme are way beyond those that one could expect with an old-fashioned MA programme. Sure it’s dear. Boy is it worth it. An exclusive club.