Dear Friends,
It has been interesting reading responses from so many learned and practising professionals on this very pertinent issue raised by Mr Srinivasan.
A lot has been said, and a lot has been learnt. I really enjoyed perusing them.
My few short comments:
(A) Most university courses have neither the mandate from government nor the funds to engage industry professionals of communication management (I am avoiding just PR) to teach students.
(B) Many private institutes are either new, or not established, or short on cash to do the same, and perhaps few are not too serious for it, too, living in an ivory tower.
(C) As Director of Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, whom the members of this group and another group has voted online as the best PR education institute, allow me to note that we strongly believe that industry professionals themselves can do the right training, particularly in semesters 2, 3 and 4 of the course here, after we teach the basics in Semester 1, and we have a list of 30-32 PR/Corp Comm/Events professionals coming here to teach, including a few members and moderator of this group.
(D) Industry professionals can bring in the case-study method, and problem-options-
(E) The industry works in convergence setting where different functions of communication and different types of media blend together to create the final image of the corporate/brand or manage a crisis, internal or external, for which communication professionals are put on the job. This holistic/integrated communication setting can best be explained in a real-life situation by working professionals, and not full time teachers, who are seeing one function/media at a time. Seamless blending and NOT siloism in communication is the order of the day, and who knows it better than you all?
(F) We are now preparing a book on events management with 22 chapters, covering A to Z of events, and 22 different communication MBA trainees are working on one chapter each, for which they are reading up aggressively and talking to 4 to 6 working professionals each.
(G) We are also working on a book which will finally have 3000+ words chapters on 25 different sectors in which PR/Communication is being strongly practised today in India: Like Healthcare PR, Telecom PR, and the like. Same way, 25 trainees working one on each, and talking 4-6 professionals from that sector for their research, apart from reading up from various sources published and on net, etc.
(H) An Introduction to Branding and Marketing Communications Management (Rs.300/- and 300 pages): an introductory overview of sorts, with writeups from young to veterans, including Alyque P, Harish Bijoor, Alan D Souza, et al, is already published a few months ago and the young professionals and students are benefitting from it.
I look forward to meeting more practising communication professionals on and off the campus and sharing and learning in the process.
Regards
UKC
--
Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury
Dean, Symbiosis International University
Director, Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication
Managing Editor,
New Global Indian & India Insight
Symbiosis Campus, Viman Nagar, Pune: 14, Maharashtra, India.
Cell: 0-93733-11239
(Former Media Adviser, Textiles Ministry, GOI; The Nippon Foundation; and WHO, India).
To: prpoint@yahoogroups
CC: prpoint@gmail.
From: Praveen@jspl.
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:37:47 +0530
Subject: FW: [prpoint] Debate: Why many educational institutions do not involve industry professionals?
The biggest lacunae or fallacies in the university teaching of these subject is that the courses and mode of teaching prevailed in indian university is certificate oriented. people just do these courses to have passport in venturing into the pr-profession with the company just by mugging up some selected trend of questions.
> What i propose in this type of courses and mode of teaching is case analysis method ,where theoretical knowledge is basically evaluated in a created simulation.The case -study needs to be drafted jointly by academician and practicing manager jointly. The recent success stories in PR needs to be aprt of the course which really gives a better insight and the challenges.
>
> The profession has simply become the managing government offices,local journalist and the locan goons and politician in favour by unethical means and over commitment.
>
> Today this profession needs to take a centre stage and a strategic dimension to give direction to the business ,investment and society at large.
>
>
Praveen Kumar
Sr. DGM (HR)
Jindal Steel & Power Ltd.
Raigarh Chhattisgarh
98274 77700
> -----
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Bobby Shivyana < yanbab2002@yahoo.
> Date: 2008/6/23
> Subject: Re: [prpoint] Debate: Why many educational institutions do not involve industry professionals?
> To: prpoint@yahoogroups
>
>
>
>
> Dear Mr Srinivasan,
>
>
> I am a faculty but still a student. I am also on the board of studies with two universities. I am presently associated with AP State Council of Higher Education in preparing syllabus for UG/PG courses of PR in AP Universities. You raised a good issue and asked both students and faculty to react. While agreeing with what has been said by Mr Surkund and Mr CJ Sing, I would like to share my understanding of the present day 'industry endorsed PR education'.
>
> In western systems of education, there are "major" subjects among minors to specialize at certain levels to keep pace with trends and requirements. To some extent, international/ corporate/private colleges in India whose business is to sell education in the guise of 'knowledge transfer' are able to offer such kind of courses. They can even fly-the-faculty from different parts of the Globe. But the fee is prohibitive. No ordinary student who aspires to prosecute such studies can afford to it. Of course, there are clients to such commodities.
>
> Indian Universities, on the other hand make efforts to update patterns of courses, structure of syllabi etc but by the time these things could take a shape, they become out-moded, yet relevant, because Indian system of education is wholesome at every level. For example, if PR is to be taught even at post graduate level, a bit of history, a potion of management, a dose of media, a bit of ethics, a measure of sociology are also taught to give an idea of closely related subjects as well as remotely related subjects. Because of this, India is able to produce both Generalists as well as Specialists in every field of knowledge.
>
> In terms of employability, those who possess the so called 'industry endorsed' PgCert or PgDip of 9 months or 12 months duration either in Journalism or Masscom or Public Relations are acceptable to industry to the extent of 95%. The simple reason behind this is 'what a candidate possesses is what Industry expects', a mere stylish communicative English and a few personal selling techniques. I strongly believe, we are mis-judging the Industry expectations. Here is a mis-match.
>
> "There is always a yawning gap between PR education and PR educators on one side and the Industry on the other", as observed by seniors in the profession, like Dr CVNR. This kind of a situation is not exclusive to India. As far as PR profession is concerned, the situation is similar even in advanced countries as seen from the recent reports of Global Alliance and of a Commission on PR Education in USA. >
>
> When we talk about PR Educators and their stuff we have to be prudent. The permanent faculty in Universities and Colleges is insufficient. The right kind of visiting faculty is scarce. Can any PR practitioner, public or private, whose economic objective is different, spare an hour a week to teach? The remuneration offered by the conventional universities is almost nothing. Only those who are committed to teaching and committed to profession are doing it for decades and producing excellent PR managers.
>
> Teaching, Education, Instruction & Learning are different things. It appears as though 'devils reciting Vedas' if an unprofessional comments on a subject that can be taught only by professionals. We read lessons about the Emperor Ashoka in primary classes. We also read about the same Emperor at PG level as part of Ancient Indian History. Repetition is neither wrong nor boring. Course contents are not novels to impress or entertain somebody, but written to inform and educate the knowledge seekers. It all depends on how effectively it is taught and how interestingly it is learnt. "My Education began when my schooling ended", said a great scholar. The actual process of learning starts only after entering into the practical world. "Jnanam Samyaagavekshanam"
>
> Regards,
>
> Y. Babji
> Hyderabad
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Rusen Kumar
> Public Relations
> Jindal Steel & Power Ltd
> Raigarh Chhattisgarh
> 98274 77507
> rusenkumar@gmail.
>
>
>
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