Course details

Summary

If you're looking to accelerate your professional career by gaining expertise in an area of business you're passionate about, or want to prepare for a PhD or research career, this degree is designed for you.

The Master of Management Studies (MMS) degree will bring you closer to the frontiers of knowledge in your specialist field, and prepare you for leadership roles that require a high level of critical thinking and information analysis.

This degree normally includes both taught and research papers, but can also be taken as a full research degree.

Public Relations

If you enjoy writing and talking to different people, and love framing ideas in imaginative and engaging ways, then a career in Public Relations may be right for you.

Public relations practitioners plan and implement communication campaigns to influence people’s attitudes and behaviour. They are effective networkers who work closely with journalists to manage media publicity, and act as a crucial link between an organisation and its publics, such as the community, customers and corporate shareholders.

Public Relations professionals are also involved with crisis and issues management, government relations, lobbying, events, sponsorship and fundraising, and employee relations.

Practical, hands-on learning

The assignments for this subject are highly practical. You’ll plan and deliver an innovative public relations campaign for a real client, take part in a mock media conference, build a website, use social media, create a range of advertisements, and write media releases for print, broadcast and online media. You'll also learn how to organise events, prepare corporate documents and deliver professional speeches.

Our students enjoy visits from a wide range of professional guest speakers in class, who will share their insights about what it's like working in the public relations industry.

If you choose to major in Public Relations for your degree, you'll take the exciting core papers Health Communication Campaigns, where you'll compete against other teams to develop a real-life campaign on behalf of a not-for-profit organisation. You'll then present your campaign results to a panel of experts to demonstrate your knowledge of effective public relations strategies.

Career opportunities

• Public relations manager
• Public relations account executive
• Communications advisor
• Internal communications manager
• Media relations adviser
• Event manager
• Community relations manager
• Sponsorship/fundraising manager
• Press secretary

Entry criteria

You can apply for the MMS if you have:

• Completed a bachelor's degree from Waikato Management School, or its equivalent, or;
• Completed an honours degree or postgraduate diploma in a relevant subject area (at least 120 points), and;
• Achieved at least a B grade average in the subject you intend to take for this qualification.

English language requirements:

• an IELTS overall score of at least 6.5, including at least 6.0 in the Writing band, or
• an iBT (Internet-based TOEFL) score of at least 90, with a Writing score of at least 22, or
• a B grade or better at Level 8 in the Certificate of Attainment in Academic English, or
• an overall score of C (with at least a C in the Writing band) in the Foundation Certificate in English for Academic Purposes, or
• a PTE Academic overall score of at least 65, with no less than 58 for each communicative skill.