[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/terry_flynn.jpg” caption=”Terry Flynn, assistant professor of communications management and a 20-year veteran of the Canadian public relations industry will lead DeGroote’s newly approved Master of Communications Management degree program. File photo.”]

The new Master of Communications Management degree program at the DeGroote School of Business has received approval from the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies.

The new degree program, a joint venture between the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, is designed specifically for working public relations professionals.

The program is the first of its kind in Canada. Classes will begin in October 2007. Most of the course will be done through distance education with students continuing to work at their jobs, while completing readings and assignments and meeting pre-determined deadlines. Ongoing access to professors will be via a dedicated web-based student portal. Students attend three, one-week on campus learning sessions per year (in October, February and June) and register for two courses each term.

“This innovative and unique program will provide graduates with a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace and rightly position communications management and public relations as a strategic management function,” says DeGroote dean, Paul Bates. “We are especially excited about the Master of Communication Management program, as it is the first new program developed at DeGroote in 25 years and is an important first step in the expanded executive education program we will be offering at McMaster's new campus in Burlington.”

The program is administered by Terry Flynn, APR, assistant professor of communications management at DeGroote, a 20-year veteran of the Canadian public relations industry and a graduate of Syracuse University's communications management program.

“Our new Master of Communications Management degree program combines the best of graduate-level public relations education with the best of master of business administration courses to offer Canadian public relations managers a new degree of difference and a workplace competitive advantage,” says Flynn.

Graduates of the program will be awarded a joint Master of Communications Management degree from McMaster University and Syracuse University and will be eligible to participate in alumni programs and activities at each university.

More information on the program is available at www.mcm.degroote.mcmaster.ca, e-mailing mcm@mcmaster.ca or calling 905-525-9140, ext. 23603.