Business and Marketing (with Placement Year)

• Opportunity to spend a year on a business placement in the UK or overseas. Previous examples have included IBM, Microsoft, Procter and Gamble, L'Oreal, Warner Brothers and Rolls Royce.
• Industry field trips which have previously included, for example, Jaguar Land Rover and the Cadbury World exhibition tour (which included a talk from the Marketing team at Cadbury’s), as well as professional exhibitions like the Digital Marketing Show (field trips and exhibitions are subject to availability, competitive application, meeting any applicable visa requirements and additional costs may apply).
• Use of a digital communications lab – the DigiComm Lab. This is equipped with industry-standard software, including Adobe Comp, Adobe Slate, Adobe Voice, Behance, WordPress and social media platforms.
• The CIM Graduate Gateway award offers direct entry to top-up to CIM’s Diploma in Professional Marketing (one module exemption) after successfully completing your degree or in the three years following, upon completion of two additional modules (additional costs may apply).Please see Exemptions tab for further information.
• Research-inspired teaching from staff that are active in the areas of branding and guest speakers such as Brandz Global Director and esteemed visiting professors (subject to availability).
• Chance to spend a year studying abroad – past students have studied in China and Belgium.

All our Marketing courses share some common first year modules, designed to develop your understanding of business in general and the holistic nature of marketing. We focus on developing your knowledge of the underpinning core principles of business, marketing and advertising, introducing you to market research, marketing planning and communications, which should enable you to become more strategic and specialised in subsequent years.

In your second year, you will have the opportunity to further develop your potential career pathway in business and marketing, by being able to explore a variety of marketing subject areas, such as consumer behaviour and marketing insights.

After the second year, you have the option of applying for a work placement year or spending 12 months studying abroad to broaden your international perspective. Previous students have secured placements at large multinational firms, while other past students have had the chance to study with some of our partners in Europe and Asia.

Students can opt to go on a work placement or study abroad year and if selected, they will be registered onto a module which runs for a full academic year between years 2 and 3. Students must have a confirmed placement or study abroad opportunity two weeks prior to the start of the academic year to participate in the study abroad/placement year, however we encourage international students to confirm their placements earlier to ensure they are able to meet any applicable visa requirements. Students can only progress onto the relevant work placement or study abroad module if they successfully complete the first two years of the course (i.e. having accumulated 240 credits).

Students opting for either the work placement or study abroad module will be registered on a non-credit bearing module and therefore no additional tuition fees apply. While the modules do not bear credits, they do require completion of a marked assessment reflecting on your placement/study abroad or work placement experience. Following successful completion of this assessment, the module selected will appear on your final academic transcript. Students will thus graduate with 360 credits in total, assuming successful completion of their final year.

In your final year you will have the opportunity to pick an optional module, to help develop your knowledge in an area of interest, such as innovation, entrepreneurship or global marketing. Then, the culmination of your studies will be the completion of an independent research project in a specialist area.

There will be support from an academic supervisor who may have direct knowledge and interest in your topic area, and past topics covered have included branding, organisational behaviour, HR management, advertising and entrepreneurship, as examples.

Some of our past graduates have gone on to a range of careers in:

• Marketing
• Advertising
• PR
• Brand Management
• Marketing Research
• Digital Marketing
• Sales
• General Management

with a wide range of large and small organisations such as:

• IBM
• Hewlett Packard
• Rolls Royce
• Procter and Gamble
• Jaguar Land Rover
• Silverstone
• McCann Erickson
• Volkswagen
• South African Airlines
• Millward Brown
• Chime Communications