Program Director: Sumana Chattopadhyay, Ph.D.,
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the Diederich College of Communication
Graduate Communication website
Degree Offered
Master of Arts, Plan B only
Program Description
This interdisciplinary master of arts in Corporate Communication degree is offered by the Diederich College of Communication. Students may complete the program 100% online or with a combination of face-to-face and online course formats. The program combines public relations fundamentals and communication theory with an advanced business education to prepare students for an increasingly complex communication landscape. The program focuses on communication as an executive level function and course work includes topics such as: organizational communication, accounting and finance, international business and communication, corporate advocacy, and organizational leadership. The program reflects Marquette’s commitment to developing students’ abilities as ethical leaders with an understanding of corporate social responsibility in a global environment. As such, the degree prepares graduates to be ethical and informed communication leaders.
At the completion of this program students will be able to:
- Establish the business case for communication functions within the corporation and lead and coordinate the comprehensive communication functions of a corporation.
- Articulate the importance of having a clear corporate vision, mission and identity of a corporation and develop and execute plans for communicating these both internally and externally.
- Assess internal and external corporate communication needs and develop strategic communication plans.
- Articulate the roles corporations play within the larger social, cultural, political and economic context of our contemporary global society.
The master of arts in corporate communication requires a minimum of 30 credit hours of course work, split between the College of Communication and the Graduate School of Management.
Recognition is given to those applicants with or pursuing the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). An official copy of the certificate of completion, or proof of current enrollment, must be submitted with the application materials. Upon verification of the APR, and successful completion of 6 graduate credits within the corporate communication program, the College of Communication will award 6 credits equivalent to CMST 6600 Communication Consulting and CCOM 6700 Corporate Advocacy to the student records, recognizing the mastery of these strategic communication competencies. It is the student's responsibility to communicate participation in the APR program with the College of Communication to ensure proper advising and the awarding of the credits.
To earn the master of arts in corporate communication, students complete 15 credits from each college as listed below.
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| Corporate Advocacy | |
| Corporate Advocacy |
| Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility | |
| Corporate Social Responsibility |
| Communication Consulting | |
| Communication Consulting |
| CCOM 6300 | Financial Communication and Investor Relations | 3 |
| CMST 6200 | Organizational Communication | 3 |
| Business Essentials - Accounting | |
| Business Essentials - Economics | |
| Business Essentials - Finance | |
| Business Essentials - Marketing | |
| Quantitative Analysis | |
| Leading People and Change | |
| Leadership Coaching and Development | |
| Contemporary Leadership: Theory, Research and Application | |
| Strategic Communication | |
| Character Driven Leadership | |
| Topics in Leadership Studies | |
| Change Leadership in Self and Organizations | |
| Negotiations | |
| |
| Total Credit Hours: | 30 |
Accelerated Bachelor's-Master's Program
The accelerated degree program in the College of Communication allows Marquette University students to earn both a bachelor of arts degree with a major in advertising, communication studies, corporate communication, digital media, film and media studies, journalism, public relations, or theatre arts and a master of arts degree in communication in five years. Students complete up to 12 hours of approved graduate credit in communication during their senior undergraduate year that count as part of the undergraduate credit hour requirement.
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| |
| Communication Statistics and Analysis | |
| Modern Elementary Statistics | |
| Honors Modern Elementary Statistics | |
| Mathematical Statistics | |
| Statistical Methods | |
| Honors Psychological Measurements and Statistics | |
| Applied Statistics | |
| Engineering Statistics | |
| |
| Accounting and Finance Fundamentals for Non-Business Majors | |
| Principles of Financial Accounting | |
| Principles of Managerial Accounting | |
| |
| Introduction to Economics | |
| Principles of Microeconomics | |
| Principles of Macroeconomics | |
| |
| Accounting and Finance Fundamentals for Non-Business Majors | |
| Introduction to Financial Management | |
| |
| Introduction to Marketing | |
Upon completion of the first term as a master's candidate, the student must petition the Graduate School to transfer the courses taken as an undergraduate to the master's degree. All remaining master's degree requirements may be completed during the subsequent summer, fall and spring terms.
Candidates for admission should have undergraduate junior status, have completed at least 3 upper-division communication courses and should have a major GPA of at least 3.000 and an cumulative GPA of at least 3.250. Candidates for admission to this program should notify the associate dean for graduate studies and research of their intentions.
