Connect
This is a guest blog post by the Chief Executive of the PRCA, Francis Ingham.
Some of you may have read the 'Letters of the Week' feature in the most recent issue of PR Week (15 September).
Below is my response to a featured letter by Dr Jacquie E’tang (Director of the MSc/Diploma in strategic PR and communications management at Stirling University), entitled “PRCA has ignored Northern institutions for elite PR group”.
To start with I would say that Dr L’Etang makes a pretty unfortunate insinuation. And one that is simply untrue.
We recognised that employers, students and universities alike want formal links together, but that no robust mechanism for delivering this had existed previously. Some PR degrees are excellent - others are almost without value. That gulf in quality - and graduate employability - will become all the more stark as universities impose extra costs on students and as graduate recruitment continues to be fragile.
Based on employer feedback and the quality of their courses, we approached a number of universities, with a view to exploring partnering with them in the best interests of students, employers, relevant universities and the broader industry. Three of those universities in the first instance were Scottish.
Of the final number approached, all but three partnered enthusiastically. One university declined to be involved. One Scottish university is in advanced discussions with us. And one university just didn't reply for five months - Stirling.
When Dr L’Etang did reply, asking if we could speak further, it was over two months after the deadline, and a week or so after the partnership programme had been made public.
My response was the perfectly reasonable one that our existing university partners might justifiably feel upset if now we were to announce immediate arrangements with other universities that had failed to engage in the discussion. But that nonetheless I was happy to have a phone conversation with her to try and establish common ground - and I still am.
Dr L’Etang’s response is, I suppose, this letter.
I regret that response. It is very much akin to ignoring a party invitation, and then once the party has been a great success, simultaneously bemoaning the fact you weren't there, and also trying to demean it.
Stirling could have been involved but ignored the invitation. And our partnership programme will therefore go ahead without it. That's a pity, but it really is not for want of trying on our part.
