Intercultural Business Communication

MA

  • Entry year 2026
  • Duration Full time 1 year, Part time 2 years
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Overview

Get on track for a fascinating career in a rapidly evolving field with Lancaster’s world-class linguistics team. Gain a higher-level qualification and learn essential intercultural communication skills.

Meeting and working with different people of different nationalities and backgrounds is part of everyday life. Discover how the cultural diversity in the workplace means organisations need to reassess their communication and training strategies.

Why Lancaster?

  • Study with a world-class linguistics team in a dynamic, international environment
  • Boost your career prospects with a higher-level degree, demonstrating your intercultural awareness and in-depth research skills
  • Enjoy the flexibility of designing part of your degree based on your specific interests
  • Make the most of our outstanding resources including fully equipped labs for eye-tracking and phonetics
  • Use your degree as a stepping-stone to become a communications expert in the public or private sector

Develop effective intercultural interaction

What do you do when cultural misunderstandings impact productivity?? How can you contribute to an inclusive workplace?? How do you incorporate intercultural awareness into a project, product or initiative?? Interacting with professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds is key in today’s workplace.

Our MA in Intercultural Business Communication provides you with the knowledge and practical skills needed for effective intercultural interactions at work and in business. Be among the first to hear from our experts on their latest work in:

  • Intercultural pragmatics
  • Business communication
  • Bilingual cognition
  • Linguistic and cultural relativity

Tailor your studies

In this programme you’ll discover how culture and language influence our interactions when we travel, do business or attend a workplace meeting. You’ll explore how we communicate with others and relate that to the theory behind different aspects of intercultural communication.

You’ll also be able to develop your research skills in linguistics and English language, equipping yourself for roles that require investigative skills and fact-based analysis and advice.

Shape your degree around your interests by choosing from our wide range of optional modules, from cognitive linguistics to second language acquisition. Plus, you can focus on one of your special interests in your dissertation. Previous students have chosen topics as diverse as the representation of linguistic and cultural groups in the media, how foreign language teachers teach intercultural competence and how cultural complexity influences workplace talk.

Don’t worry if you’re returning to education or aren’t used to studying in the UK – we’re ready to provide extra support if you need it. You can get help with any aspect of your course including academic reading, writing and presentation skills.

Networking opportunities

We pride ourselves on offering much more than high quality teaching. Join one of our research groups and networks such as Culture and Communication, Discourse and Text or Cognitive Linguistics. You’ll find we offer a host of events, talks and activities to complement and enhance your course. You can also join one of the lively university societies or take part in one of our international summer schools.

Our Culture and Communication Network provides the opportunity to connect with colleagues across Lancaster University who work in different disciplines and are interested in any aspect of communication and culture.

Careers

The field of Intercultural Business Communication is gaining in prominence and our programme will equip you with specialist skills and knowledge that are relevant for many professional roles.

Our programme will also be suitable as continued professional development if you already work in a related role, no matter the country, cultures and/or language.

Typical career destinations include:

  • Marketing communications
  • Work with charities/NGOs
  • Diversity & inclusion roles
  • Communications management roles
  • Community liaison
  • Translation and interpreting
  • HR and administration roles

In addition, many of our master's students go on to pursue further research with a PhD.

Careers and employability support

Our degrees open up an extremely wide array of career pathways in businesses and organisations, large and small, in the UK and overseas. Our specialist Employability team is ready to support you, whether you are starting out your career after leaving higher education or returning to university to open up new career options.

We provide individual employability advice, application support, career events, development opportunities and resources to help you plan and achieve your career goals. We also run a paid internship scheme specifically for arts, humanities and social sciences students.

The Lancaster Award is available to all postgraduate taught students and recognises work experience, volunteering and personal development alongside your studies. Developed with employers, it helps you reflect on key skills, boost your CV and articulate your strengths with confidence.

Whether you have a clear idea of your potential career path or need some help considering the options, our friendly team is on hand.

Find out more about Lancaster’s careers events, extensive resources and personal support for Careers and Employability.

Entry requirements

Academic Requirements

2:1 Hons degree in a related subject is normally required. We will also consider applications where you have a degree in other subjects, have a 2:2 or equivalent result and/or extensive relevant experience. In these cases, you should clearly demonstrate how your experience and skills have prepared you for postgraduate study.

If you have studied outside of the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.

English Language Requirements

We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.

We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.5 in reading and writing and 6.0 in listening and speaking. We also consider other English language qualifications.

If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.

Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Pre-master’s programmes

Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master’s pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master’s degrees. Visit INTO Lancaster University for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.

Course structure

Detailed module information for this postgraduate programme will follow shortly. However, if you have any questions please contact the department.

Fees and funding

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General fees and funding information

Additional fees and funding information accordion

Scholarships and bursaries

You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status and course. You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.

Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.

If you're considering postgraduate research you should look at our funded PhD opportunities.

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We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.

Browse Lancaster University's scholarships and bursaries.

Important Information

The information on this site relates primarily to 2025/2026 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.

The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.

More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.

Our Students’ Charter

We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our Charter and student policies.