Bachelor of Public Relations
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Program Overview
Are you easily bored and always looking for your next challenge?
Do you love spending time on creative projects like organizing events, shooting videos, taking photos, writing stories or creating content for Instagram and Tik Tok? Do your friends turn to you to find out what’s new and happening? Have you struggled to find the right career path because you’re interested in so many different things? Then, public relations may be the ideal career for you.
This dynamic, growing field is ideal for people looking for exciting work where no two days are the same.
In public relations, we help to manage the reputation of our company and build strong relationships within our surrounding community. We release major company announcements and respond to public feedback. We plan awareness campaigns, organize events, respond to crisis situations and solve organizational problems. We write company feature stories, run social media accounts, act as spokespeople and generate news media coverage on behalf of our organization. We also work in agencies where we create exciting campaigns that solve problems for our clients. We flex our creative muscles and apply our best strategic thinking each and every day.
Skills in public relations are needed in the corporate, agency, government and the non-profit sectors. Our program will prepare you for an exciting career filled with opportunity. This program combines academic rigour and theory with a hands-on experience. You'll build the skills required to be successful in the field while having fun and meeting lifelong friends who will become the core of your professional network. Through special conferences, events and guest speakers, you’ll meet and work with some of PR’s leading professionals and build your practical skills during a 14-week work placement.
Our courses cover a broad spectrum of public relations skills. You’ll write stories, shoot videos, create podcasts and learn how to manage social media. You’ll learn about business, how to deal with the news media, and how to pull everything together into a communications strategy that helps your organization reach its goals.
And, at the core of this program is the writing. By the time you graduate, you’ll have developed the strong writing skills that Humber’s Bachelor of Public Relations is known for – the writing skills that employers value.
When it comes time to finding your first job, Humber’s reputation as one of Canada’s leading public relations schools will make your degree a valuable asset. Our grads are everywhere: in leadership roles at Canada’s top agencies, heading up departments in some of Canada’s largest corporations, or making a difference at charities or non-profit organizations.
According to the 2019-2020 KPI Graduate and Employer Satisfaction Survey, 100% of our graduates found full-time employment within six months of graduation, and over 90% were employed directly in the public relations field.
The Bachelor of Public Relations program at Humber is a fully accredited degree, so you may also choose to pursue education at the master's level. Some of our grads have gone on to study at some of Canada’s most prestigious universities including McMaster and the University of Toronto.
Semester 1 |
|---|
| MSCP 1000: Writing 1: Writing Fundamentals |
| MSCP 1003: Social Media 1 |
| MSCP 1501: Photography Fundamentals |
| PBRL 1001: Introduction to Public Relations |
| Select 1 from the following courses |
| DEGE : Degree Breadth Elective |
Semester 2 |
|---|
| MSCP 1001: Video and Audio Content Creation |
| MSCP 1002: Writing 2: Media Writing Fundamentals |
| MSCP 1502: Multiplatform Storytelling 1 |
| MSCP 1503: Communications Law and Ethics |
| Select 1 from the following courses |
| DEGE : Degree Breadth Elective |
Semester 3 |
|---|
| PBRL 2001: Strategic Communications Planning |
| PBRL 2002: Writing Lab 3: PR Writing |
| PBRL 2004: Business Fundamentals |
| RSMT 1500: Quantitative Research Methods |
| Select 1 from the following courses |
| DEGE : Degree Breadth Elective |
Semester 4 |
|---|
| MKT 1501: Integrated Marketing Communications |
| MSTU 2000: Media Relations |
| PBRL 1501: Presentation Skills |
| PBRL 2502: Writing Lab 4: PR Writing in the Marketing Mix |
| Select 1 from the following courses |
| DEGE : Degree Breadth Elective |
Work Experience - SEM 6C |
|---|
| PBRL 3500: Field Experience - Public Relations BA |
Work-Integrated Learning
Work-Integrated Learning courses serve as the vital link between academic learning and real-world application. Within this framework, students actively participate in the Professional Practice course, equipping you with the necessary skills and confidence to secure your own field experience. Throughout this journey, a dedicated career & work-integrated learning advisor offers personalized guidance and support.
In the summer semester between Years 3 and 4, students immerse themselves in the Field Experience course, committing 420 hours of practical application within the field. Whether pursuing paid or unpaid opportunities, all experiences undergo approval by your career & work-integrated learning advisor to ensure relevance.
The Humber Advantage
Watch the "Power Up Your Credential!" Info Session to learn more about the Bachelor of Public Relations program.
BuildingF (formerly the AdCentre) brings marketers and agencies together with advanced students from virtually any Humber program to produce strategic creative content and technology solutions.
Instead of just being given a grade for assignments, students are provided with a chance to work with real clients, on actual accounts, receiving first-hand experience in the field.
The disciplines that can be accessed through BuildingF include anything found in a modern advertising, design or PR agency, including brand experience design, communications marketing, advertising design, writing, production, and much more.
Humber is proud to offer scholarships to students across a variety of programs, including entrance scholarships for newly admitted students. Humber is also committed to supporting equity, diversity and inclusion and offers a number of scholarship opportunities to students who self-identify as members of an equity-deserving group. The following scholarships are available to students entering the Bachelor of Public Relations program:
Agnostic Future Communicators Scholarship
(four scholarships of $2,000 each)
To be presented to a student in good standing entering the Bachelor of Public Relations program who self-identifies as a racialized person and demonstrates financial need. Student must have a minimum average of 75% to be eligible.
Middle Child Public Relations Scholarship
(one scholarship of $2,500)
To be presented to a student entering the Bachelor of Public Relations program who displays an interest in community involvement and community leadership. Student must self-identify as a racialized person and demonstrate financial need.
North Strategic/MSLGroup Scholarship
(one scholarship of $3,000)
To be presented to a student entering the Bachelor of Public Relations program who has a strong interest in pursuing a career in PR/Communications. Student must self-identify as a racialized person and demonstrate financial need.
Applicants must answer the following essay question – “What is it that interests you most about a career in PR/Communications?"
The Proof Strategies Community Leadership Scholarship
(one scholarship of $3,000, renewable for four years)
To be presented to a student entering the Bachelor of Public Relations program who has displayed a passion and interest in community involvement and community leadership. Student must self-identify as a racialized person and demonstrate financial need. Preference is to support one scholarship recipient for their full four-year degree, renewal of this scholarship will be based on maintaining good academic standing.
Scholarships are also available to enrolled students and include:
The Argyle PR/Alison George Scholarship
(one scholarship of $3,333, renewable for three years)
To be presented to a student in their first year of the Bachelor of Public Relations program who is involved in their local community and passionate about community leadership. Student must self-identify as a racialized person and demonstrate financial need. Preference is to support one scholarship recipient for the student’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years in the program, renewal of this scholarship will be based on maintaining excellent academic standing.
Edelman Scholarship
(One scholarship of $3,000)
Presented to an outstanding 3rd year student who through course work and extracurricular activities, demonstrates excellent communication skills resilience, and business savvy. Student must demonstrate financial need.
Student must self-identify as a member of an equity-deserving group; Women, Persons with Disabilities, Racialized Persons, Persons from diverse Gender Identities and Persons who identify as 2SLGBTQ+.
Student must answer the following essay question: How will your unique voice broaden representation and diversity in the public relations industry?
Rogers Communications
(one scholarship of $2,500)
To be presented to a student who self-identifies as Black/African, Indigenous, and/or Racialized Person, who is in their third year of the Bachelor of Public Relations program who has excelled in their course work and demonstrates a proficiency for the practice of Public Relations. Student must demonstrate financial need.
Student must complete a full application form including an additional essay question: What role does the PR industry play in fostering a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive Canadian society? How do you see yourself personally contributing to this?
Weber Shandwick Scholarship
(one scholarship of $3,000)
Presented to a student in their 2nd or 3rd year of the Bachelor of Public Relations program who is involved in their local community and passionate about community leadership. Student must self-identify as a racialized person and demonstrate financial need.
Weber Shandwick Richard Ellis Scholarship
(one scholarship of $1,000)
The Scholarship will be presented by Humber College to a student entering their fourth year of the Bachelor of Public Relations program who displays passion and proficiency in the areas of diversity and inclusion, as exemplified by Richard Ellis. Applicants will answer the following essay question: Why is diversity & inclusion important to the communications business, and what can we do to better foster it?
For more information about available scholarships and how to apply as either a prospective or current student, please visit humber.ca/studentscholarships.
Expert Faculty
Lydia Boyko
Dr. Lydia Boyko joined Humber College in 2011 after more than 20 years of business experience in the private sector, with a focus on government and investor relations in the financial services sector, and several years as a partial-load professor at the post-secondary level, in addition to news media work in her "first career." She is an accredited life member of the Canadian Public Relations Society and a fellow of the Life Management Institute specializing in life and health insurance, and a member of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute and the International Association of Business Communicators. Lydia completed a journalism first-class honours undergraduate degree at Carleton University, a post-graduate certificate in business communication at McGill University, and Master of Education and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral thesis, Academic Department Management, won the 2010 George L. Geis Dissertation Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. Lydia serves as chair of the Humber Research Ethics Board.
Kenneth Chou
Kenneth Chou is a graduate of the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University. He’s had the privilege of working with a diverse range of clients spanning industries from the performing arts, literature, and film and television. His work has been published in Macleans, the Globe and Mail, and on the BBC. While working with The Glenn Gould Foundation, Ken had the honour of photographing the renowned soprano Jessye Norman, and the iconic composer Philip Glass. Besides being an educator and photographer, he is also the co-founder of Better than Fine Inc, a production company specializing in digital content creation, and media strategy.
Mark LaVigne
Mark Hunter LaVigne, MA, APR, FCPRS, has 30 years’ experience as a media relations specialist and has taught most recently in the PR degree programs at Humber and Centennial Colleges in his 16-year career as a part-time professor.
For the past 21 years, he has operated his own media relations and media training firm, Hunter LaVigne Communications Inc. For seven years prior to that, he worked for PR agencies in downtown Toronto including Ogilvy and Mather and Hill and Knowlton. Prior to his career in public relations, he worked as a radio journalist for five years in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto with CKO, CJEZ, BN, and CBC Radio.
He has done client work for a number of companies including Aon, Kodak Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, McCormick Canada, Netflix, SANYO Canada, Schneider Foods, Sega, and volunteer board work with the Canadian Public Relations Society, Aurora Sports Hall of Fame, and Yellow Brick House women’s shelter.
He has a master of arts in ournalism from the University of Western Ontario and an honours bachelor of arts in mass communications and English from York University.
He is an award-winning, accredited member (APR) of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS), and a member of the CPRS College of Fellows (FCPRS). He is a past president of CPRS Toronto and past vice-president of CPRS National.
He wrote the media relations chapter in Fundamentals of Public Relations and Marketing Communications (University of Alberta Press 2015) and is co-author of the new edition of In the News (3rd ed. University of Alberta Press 2019) and author of Proactive Media Relations in Canada (3rd ed. Centennial College Press 2019), with the French version published in 2020. An internal communications textbook was published in the summer of 2021.
Mark has also published a children’s book, The Adventures of Matilda the Tooth Fairy, and a number of songs with his former band, The Coyotes, “Out of the Woods." He continues to songwrite and perform on guitar, ukulele, vocals and harmonica.
The first book in his memoir series, “The Broken Ukulele, Advice for Twenty Somethings in a Broken World,” was published in April 2020 by Rock’s Mills Press, with the sequel, The Broken Turtle, due in June 2021.
He maintains his certification with the Canadian Ski Instructor’s Alliance, and is an avid canoe tripper and backpacker, mainly in Algonquin Park and environs, north of Toronto.
Anne Marie Males
Anne Marie Males is an experienced public relations practitioner and professor who is currently the program coordinator of the Bachelor of Public Relations Program. Her academic credentials include a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Journalism) from Ryerson University, a Bachelor of Administrative Studies from York University and a Master of Communication Management from McMaster University. She has also earned a certificate in Culinary Arts from George Brown College.
Anne Marie’s teaching career began after a 20+ year career in public relations, communications and administration. She was the Vice President of Patient Relations at The Scarborough Hospital and the Chief of Public Affairs and Community Relations for the Rouge Valley Health System. Her time in healthcare allowed her to develop crisis management expertise, having dealt with both SARS and a serious Legionnaires outbreak.
She was also the manger of communications for the Scarborough Board of Education, and later joined the Toronto District school board. She has worked in both advertising and public relations, and has worked as a consultant with a diverse list of clients including many of Canada’s leading real estate developers.
Anne Marie is also an accomplished freelance writer whose credits include Readers Digest, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and Homes Magazine. For eight years, she was The Sunday Sun’s restaurant reviewer, and, after many years, she is still working on her second novel. In 2020, Oxford University Press released “Public Relations in the Digital Age” an introductory Canadian public relations textbook co-authored with Tom Kelleher.
Daniel Schneider
Daniel Schneider is a professor in the Bachelor of Public Relations program. He brings over 15 years’ experience working in PR specializing in media relations and brand development.
For eight years, Daniel was an associate publicist at Pennant Media Group doing entertainment and lifestyle PR promoting artists, actors, musicians, filmmakers and production companies. In 2011, he founded Brand Management Agency with the tagline: “Every brand has a story to tell. We help you to discover it.”
In March 2021, Daniel presented a virtual TEDxHumberCollege talk, called “Pivoting better during a time of crisis,” discussing how companies need to predict the future and pivot quickly to develop competitive solutions that drive change into the future.
With background in the visual arts, Daniel entered the field of communication to raise awareness for artistic talent in Canada. He completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Guelph where he researched social influence in the art world.
Andrea Tavchar
A full-time professor in Faculty of Media & Creative Arts, the courses Andrea teaches include social media, strategic communication planning, and communication theory, and she is a thesis supervisor. In addition to her teaching, she is an active member of the Canadian Public Relations Society; has presented at a variety of academic and industry conferences; delivered a TEDx talk; and started a podcast, PR Delivered.
She earned her PhD and undergrad degrees at the University of Toronto. Prior to teaching, she spent 14 years in advertising, government public affairs and public relations working for The Region of Peel, YTV, MTV and StarChoice Television.
Study Abroad
Propel your resume and life story to the next level by taking advantage of the global opportunities offered at Humber. Gain academic credit, develop highly valued employability skills, and create connections with people from all over the world through our many offerings: Summer Abroad, Semester Exchange, Humber Global Summer School, and many other opportunities!
To learn more, please visit Humber Global, or contact Jennifer Cleary at Jennifer.Cleary@humber.ca.
Your Career
Public relations (PR) uses strategic communication to help a business succeed by managing the relationships with its many stakeholders. PR can include working with media, writing news releases and blog posts, and organizing events. Your degree in public relations enables you to work in all sectors and industries because the skills you develop are both transferable and in demand.
This program is widely recognized and respected by the industry. It will give you the skills you need to succeed in the full breadth of the profession which includes roles such as social media manager, communications officer, spokesperson, writer, media relations officer, account co-ordinator, special events manager, marketing/communication manager, public affairs officer, independent consultant, government relations practitioner, internal communications manager, entrepreneur and project manager.
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Program Availability
| START | DELIVERY | LOCATION | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | Lakeshore | Open |
| START | DELIVERY | LOCATION | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | Lakeshore | Open |
Humber is a publicly funded institution. International students graduating from a PGWP Eligible program at Humber are eligible to apply for a Post-Graduation Work Permit.
International students in Canada could be eligible for an automatic scholarship*. Apply now!
Check out the step-by-step Admissions Road Map for helpful information and additional resources.
| START | DELIVERY | LOCATION | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | Lakeshore | Open |
Humber is a publicly funded institution. International students graduating from a PGWP Eligible program at Humber are eligible to apply for a Post-Graduation Work Permit.
International applicants outside of Canada can apply through Humber International. Check out the step-by-step Admissions Road Map for helpful information and additional resources.
Upcoming Recruitment Events
How #HumberPR is a Pathway to Communications Careers
Watch the video to learn about Humber's Public Relations programs.
News Feed
TIFF Social Media Specialist Shares Secret to her Success
Mon, December 14, 2020
We sat down with Michelle Nguyen to talk about her role as a social media producer for TIFF, what her creative process looks like, and her experience in the Bachelor of Public Relations program.
No news at this time.
Ministry Consent
Humber College has been granted a consent by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities to offer this applied degree for a seven-year term starting July 5, 2024. Humber College shall ensure that all students admitted to the above-named program during the period of consent will have the opportunity to complete the program within a reasonable time frame.
Every attempt is made to ensure that information contained on this website is current and accurate. Humber Polytechnic reserves the right to correct any error or omission, modify or cancel any course, program, fee, timetable or campus location at any time without prior notice or liability to users or any other Person.
