Public Relations in Higher Education

Demonstrating its Usefulness

 

PR's task is to prove that it can be more active than reactive, that it can 

provide for the long-term and not just the short one, and that it is as 

important before as after a crisis (Birkhead 1981:18).

 

In the early 1980s American educational institutions were facing serious 

---

financial difficulties due to an economic recession. At that time Birkhead 

wrote that:

 

Higher education is in a period of retrenchment in terms of 

student enrolment and in the financial operation of its myriad 

institutions across the country. The causes of this situation are 

both demographic and economic, but the consequences are 

manifest in a certain climate on campuses for adjustment and 

compromise of the traditional balance of goals. The university is 

tilting toward a form of consumerism in education, a catering to 

demand for the purpose of maintaining demand. The university 

is sensitive to student ambitions and desires as never before, 

and those wants are being shaped by practical considerations in 

the light of the generally uncertain economic future (ibid).

 

This is the scenario that South African universities faced after the late '80s. 

One of the ways in which change is being facilitated in the NU community is 

through NU Focus magazine, to be examined later.

 

What role has PR played over the years at and how and why did it lead to the 

formulation of an effort such as the NU Focus?

 

 

 

PART II