Program summary 
Program overview
Admission requirements
Program objectives
Program structure
Program requirements and notes
Enquiries 

Program summary

Award abbreviation: GDComn
Degree type: postgraduate coursework program
Mode of study: on campus
Duration: the Graduate Diploma in Communication can be completed in the minimum time of two semesters, full-time or four semesters, part-time.
Fee type: domestic fee-paying places, international fee-paying places
Total courses: 8
Total units: 96
Commence: Semester 1 or Semester 2
Program code: AR641
CRICOS code: 058564G

Program overview

The Graduate Diploma in Communication offers students an opportunity to develop skills and conceptual understandings in contemporary communication. It will provide an attractive opportunity to gain a qualification that has relevance, currency and credibility. The Diploma will be attractive to professionals within the corporate and government sectors who wish to upgrade their qualifications and expertise within a short time frame. In many of these job markets the ability to write and communicate well is becoming increasingly important. Employers are looking for people with the ability to write and communicate in an effective, efficient and lucid fashion. The program does not just impart knowledge and skills pertinent to professional and business writing, but also ones pertinent to written communication more generally.

Admission requirements

Candidates for this award are normally required to hold a Bachelor’s degree or a relevant Graduate Certificate. To be eligible to undertake this award, students must not have undertaken a previous undergraduate degree or a major or minor in communication studies. Students cannot undertake any course in this degree that they have completed previously at an undergraduate level. Entry by non-graduates who have extensive relevant industry experience may be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Program objectives

On completion of this program students should be able to:

• demonstrate proficiency in areas of professional writing
• identify and evaluate a particular audience, and develop the styles of written communication and modes of delivery accordingly
• identify the generic conventions of different forms of written communication
• analyse written and oral communications in order to identify and implement proper drafting, revising, and editing techniques.
• graduate and pursue further vocational studies and apply theoretically advanced approaches to communication studies

Program structure

2 required courses:
CMN510 Australian Media Industries: Introduction to Communication Studies
CMN574 Research Design: Methodology and Literature Review *
Plus select 1 course from:
CMN515 Introduction to Creative Writing
CMN524 Advertising Campaigns
CMN535 News Writing: Print and Broadcast
CMN550 Media Relations
Plus select 5 courses from: (provided prerequisite equivalency has been approved by the course coordinator)
AUS585 Wonderworlds
AUS591 Otherlands
CMN511 Small Screen, Big Business: The Television Industry
CMN512 Creative Event Management
CMN513 Editing for the Communications Professional
CMN514 Computer-Assisted Reporting
CMN526 Advertising: Copy and Image
CMN528 The Writer and the Law
CMN529 Media and Promotion: Tourism and Hospitality
CMN531 Communication Campaign Planning
CMN537 Writing for the Web
CMN538 Creative Writing D: Paperback Hero
CMN540 Digital Photojournalism and Feature Writing
CMN541 Production Workshop (Creative Writing 1)
CMN542 Production Workshop (Journalism)
CMN543 Production Workshop (Professional Communication)
CMN546 Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults
CMN547 Creative Writing for the Illustrated Book
CMN548 Creative Advertising
CMN549 Advanced News Reporting
CMN551 International Communication
CMN556 Research into Australian Journalism
CMN560 Creative Writing B: Novel Ideas
CMN566 Creativity and Literature: Chaucer to Romantics
CMN567 Creativity and Literature: Victorians to Moderns
CMN571 Production Workshop (Creative Writing 2)
CMN573 Internship/Research Project (Professional Communication)
ENP540 Interpretation: Environment, Heritage and Tourism
INT570 Politics and the Media

Requirements and notes

1. The Graduate Diploma in Communication is a 96-unit program.
2. The courses that constitute the Graduate Diploma in Communication will be existing undergraduate courses but will be assessed at a postgraduate level.
3. The Graduate Diploma articulates into the Master of Communication. Students who undertake courses in the Graduate Diploma can apply for up to 8 courses advanced standing into the coursework components only of the Master of Communication.
4. Refer to the Academic Rules.

How to apply

Apply for a postgraduate program.

Enquiries 

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Tel: +61 7 5430 1259

* Subject to final approval.

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