PR Education in India: Is there is a Need of Change?

PR or Public Relations is an art of communicating with public with a view to changing their mindset in a certain direction. Its main principle is to create good image for the communicating organizations, ultimately leading to support from the public. This support is a sine qua non for the success of the given organization.

Public Relations teaching in India are not very old, it has been taught as a curriculum for the last decade or so in India.  

It should be more on practical basis rather than based on theoretical knowledge. At present ,there is a large gap between PR industry and the academia. Many colleges/Institutes provides PR and Communication courses without the involvement of industry professionals, such courses are not fruitful enough for its students. For effective PR education, the Institute/ Colleges should involve the PR Professionals to a minimum of 70 to 75%. PR Professionals who run PR firms or heads corporate communication wing should be involved as they bring together their real life experiences to the students thus helping them understand the PR Profession in a better way.

Students should be taught to write press releases, press note, how to pitch a journalist for writing news which can help the students better rather than teaching history of PR, characteristics of its professionals, and the like. Such courses should also incorporate internships from PR firms and media houses.

There is also a need for the professional PR bodies like Pubic Relation Society of India (PRSI), Public Relation Council of India (PRCI) to revisit the syllabus of PR education in our country.

The author of this opinion article is Ms. Navdeep Nandre at PR Professionals