The Media School

PR degree celebrates 21st birthday

8 April 2010

BU’s highly-regarded BA (Hons) in Public Relations (BAPR) is celebrating its 21st birthday this year.

When the degree was introduced in 1989, it became one of the first undergraduate programmes offered in the UK to focus on the professional skills required to be successful in PR. Today, applications and interest from potential students remain very high and the demand for BU graduates from PR industry employers continues to gather pace.

More recently, BU has introduced a Masters degree in PR and developed a strong reputation both nationally and internationally for research in the field.

A recent reunion in London to mark the anniversary welcomed over 250 current and former students plus academic staff, past and present – all of whom have made the degree so successful.

“It is the fantastic work of staff and students of BAPR at BU that has gained its enviable reputation in the industry,” said Dan Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at BU and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) in PR.

“Credit goes to all those who have contributed to the degree over the years, and who have built such a strong community of graduates, the vast majority of whom now inhabit the PR industry,” he continued.

Amongst the successful graduates from BU’s BAPR are Matt McKenna (1992) and Sarah Townsend (1998) who together have come together to found one of the UK’s most successful PR agencies. Based in Ringwood, Hampshire, McKenna-Townsend PR has experienced tremendous growth over the last few years. Only last month, the company entered the prestigious ‘PR Week Power Book 2010’ produced by leading industry title ‘PR Week’. The Power Book contains a list of the top 1% of people in the industry and profiles 400 of the most influential individuals in the UK PR industry.

McKenna-Townsend was also named ‘Outstanding PR Consultancy’ at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations PRide Awards (Wessex region) and selected as ‘One to Watch’ in 2009 by PR Week as part of its annual industry review and league table of the UK’s leading PR firms.