Draught of hardcore PR courses in India

As mentioned in my earlier post for any industry to grow the people entering it should be qualified enough and have the skill set required for the industry. When it comes to Public Relations (PR) in India there seems to be a draught in the number of courses available. Many colleges in India have started courses in PR but they are mostly post graduation diploma courses except the one offered by Mumbai University, Kalina Campus which is a proper Masters in Public Relations (MAPR).

Many people who are already in the industry are of the opinion that to be successful in PR one just has to be a people’s person, I personally do not agree completely with this. Agreed being a people’s person is one of the most important traits one should’ve to succeed in PR but that is not the only thing. To ensure the prospective entrants of the industry do not have the same line of thinking and have a global view of the industry with respect to how it functions, where it’s headed to, what more is left to explore in it, we need courses that do not just talk about media relations when it comes to PR but we need courses like Masters in Public Relations (MAPR).The course offered by  Mumbai University, Kalina Campus delves deep into the history of Public Relations and also tries to make its students develop a mindset where they don’t just want to be another person working in the industry but actually want to change the field in their own unique way. In short the course tries to build Thought Leaders.

With an increase in the number of students opting for mass media courses nowadays, the awareness level about Public Relations as a field has also gone up, a good omen indeed, but then again just the student being aware of something is not everything. Unless and until a course or field is well known, parents don’t usually take a liking to the course their ward has chosen and try to convince their kid to give it a second thought and consider some other career choice which if not the parents themselves but at least their office buddies have heard of and approved off. For this to happen, the industry needs to do a little bit of PR for itself. The first step in the PR campaign for PR would be to convince other universities need to take a leaf out of Mumbai University’s book and give a serious thought to a Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) as a potential course in their curricula. Let’s see how the elders in the community (PR) take to this suggestion by a youngling like me.