MA Intercultural Communication

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MA (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,400
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £31,400

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International Student Course Deposit

International applicants will be required to pay a course deposit of £2,500 to secure their place on the programme. Full details of how and when to make this payment will be included in your offer letter. This deposit confirms your intention to study in the UK and replaces the need for a separate CAS deposit.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

• Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.
• Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
• Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

This core course unit provides students with a systematic and critical understanding of intercultural communication as a field of study, research, education and practice.  The course unit particularly problematises the default 'large culture' approach whereby culture is equated with nationality or ethnicity in a static fashion, and thus introduces a more complex and critical approach to intercultural communication.   

Understanding of core concepts in intercultural communication, such as culture, language, communication, identity, power, and intercultural competence, is developed through engagement with seminal and cutting-edge research. Key theories examining these concepts and how they relate to intercultural communication are introduced, explored and critically evaluated through a mixture of academic discussion and intercultural training-based activities.   

Engaging with increased international mobility and globalisation, the course unit also considers a range of personal and professional contexts of social interaction and critically examines how researchers have sought to understand and theorise intercultural communication in these different contexts.  Students will be supported to reflect on their own experiences of intercultural communication and relate these to the ideas covered in the course. 

Available on which programme(s)? - MA Intercultural Communication

Available as Free choice (UG) or to other progammes (PG)? - Yes

Available to students on an Erasmus programme? - No

Medium of language - Spoken and written English

This course unit aims to:

provide students with a thorough conceptual foundation for their developing understandings of intercultural communication as a phenomenon, as an area of study, as an area of personal activity, and as an area of training and professional practice;

encourage students to engage critically with the default ‘large culture’ approach to culture, cultural difference and intercultural communication;

enable students to reflect systematically on their own cultural identities, background, and cultural and intercultural experiences;

invite students to consider the implications of intercultural theorising for real world contexts of one sort or another (e.g. professional, academic, national, personal).  

• discuss and understand different models of intercultural communication; 
• demonstrate - through informed and critical discussion - their knowledge and understanding of the key elements of intercultural thinking. 

This course unit provides an introduction to the key conceptual elements related to intercultural communication. It is framed around an exploration of key questions and topics including some of the following: What is culture? What is communication? What is intercultural communication? What is cultural identity? What is languaculture/linguaculture? What is culture shock? Otherisation. Cultural awareness. Intercultural (communicative) competence. Intercultural communication education and training. Large culture and small culture.The first part of the semester focuses on theories and models of intercultural communication, while the second part of the semester focuses on the practical application of theory across selected social and professional contexts (e.g. education, workplaces, family).

Teaching will comprise weekly two-hour classes, supported by resources in the virtual learning environment and peer learning through study group meetings and activities. Classes will involve lectures, discussions, and intercultural training activities, as well as guidance and support on the course unit assessments.

discuss and understand different models of intercultural communication;

demonstrate - through informed and critical discussion - their knowledge and understanding of the key elements of intercultural thinking. 

critically and autonomously engage with intercultural theorising;  

critically and autonomously engage with intercultural practice. 

reflect on their own cultural identities, background and cultural intercultural experiences;

develop, plan and execute their own line of academic discussion.

competently monitor and manage their own intercultural communication;

confidently approach interactions with others in a spirit of cultural plurality rather than ethnocentrism;

present their work in academically appropriate ways;

critically engage with the relevant literature and explore its implications for contexts within and beyond academic study.

Assessment Task:

Assignment 1 (Essay 1) - Summative - 1000 words (excluding appendices and reference section) - 30%

Assignment 2 (Essay 2) - Summative - 2000 words (excluding appendices and reference section) - 70%

Resit Assessment: Student will re-sit Assignment 2 (Essay 2) - 2000 words (excluding appendices and reference section)

Feedback method:

Assignment 1 (Essay 1) - Formal written feedback will be provided following the assessment.  

Assignment 2 (Essay 2) - Formal written feedback will be provided following the assessment. 

Oral feedback during class and consultation hours 

Peer feedback through in-class discussions 
 

Formal written feedback will normally be provided within 15 working days after the final submission deadline or, subject to prior approval by the faculty, within 20 working days after the final submission deadline. 

Byram, Michael. 2020. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Revisited. Multilingual matters. 

Adrian, Holliday. 2018. Understanding intercultural communication: Negotiating a grammar of culture. Routledge. 

Jackson, J. (ed.). 2020. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication (Second Ed.). Abingdon, Oxon, New York: Routledge.  

Martin, Judith N., Thomas K. Nakayama, and Donal Carbaugh. 2020. "A global look at the history and development of language and intercultural communication studies." The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication.  

Piller, Ingrid. 2011. Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.  

Spencer-Oatey, Helen, and Peter Franklin. 2020. Intercultural interaction: A multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication. Springer. 

Zhu Hua. 2014. Exploring intercultural communication: Language in action. Routledge.