Master of Science in Corporate Communication

Goals and Contents

Corporate communication is today considered a key management function. It is about managing relationships with the organisation's stakeholders in order to maximise the corporation's reputation capital and thus to guarantee access to strategic resources. In this it is a strategic partner of other corporate functions: for instance in managing relationships with investors, it interacts with financial managers; in dealing with public authorities and regulators, it collaborates with legal services; in addressing issues of identity and corporate culture, it partners human resources specialists; in communicating with customers, it collaborates with marketers, etc. Corporate communication specialists therefore need to acquire solid general management skills in order to carry out their roles effectively.

To this purpose, the programme develops analytical and decision-making abilities for corporate communication, grounded in a sound knowledge of organisation, business economics and management. In order to help develop these analytical and decision making skills, lectures are integrated with more active teaching methods, consisting of discussion of case histories, role-playing, business games, individual and group projects, etc.

Graduates from the programme will be ready to enter the corporate communication profession at a management level. The skills acquired meet the requirements for professional careers in organisations of different kinds as well as in corporate communication agencies and consulting firms. Graduates will also be able to undertake specialised roles, in areas such as internal communication, media, financial relations, public affairs or marketing communication management.

The programme stretches over two years (120 ECTS credits) and is structured to allow the students to personalise their study curricula according to their individual interests. Typically, in the first semester students attend the general management classes in order to acquire the basics of management. The second and third semesters are dedicated to core courses and electives. Students are required to take core courses that regard specific corporate communication topics and methodology. Students complete their curriculum with electives that can be chosen among courses offered by the programme and by other USI's related programmes. During the last semester students work in teams on a field project and individually write up their master's thesis.