海角直播

IPR President-elect welcomes 海角直播鈥檚 PR degree

The president-elect of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Tony Bradley, spoke of the growing professionalism of the PR industry when he met public relations degree students at the University of 海角直播.

Mr Bradley, a director of Bradley O鈥橫ahoney Public Relations in Newcastle, will in 2006 become the IPR鈥檚 first president from the North East. He told students public relations is now recognised as a strategic management function to look after the company鈥檚 reputation by more and more forward-looking organisations. 鈥淕aining chartered status for the Institute of Public Relations will help to move PR beyond its reputation for 鈥榮pin鈥� and being airy-fairy.鈥�

Mr Bradley added that public relations was also 鈥済aining academic credibility鈥� and he welcomed the IPR鈥檚 approval of University of 海角直播 BA (Hons) degree in Public Relations.

鈥淧ublic relations is now one of the favoured professions for many students, with between 50 and 100 people chasing every junior PR job. So, the importance of gaining a qualification accepted by the industry and making the right contacts has never been more important.鈥�

During his visit, Mr Bradley met several of the prize-winning graduates from the University of 海角直播鈥檚 BA (Hons) Public Relations degree, including Jennie Boddy, who he is pictured with.

Jennie, 21, from Acklam, Middlesbrough, is a former Acklam Grange School and Middlesbrough College student. She gained the DTW Prize at her graduation in November for the best overall performance on the PR degree and is now working for the Guisborough-based public relations agency as an Account Executive.

Before that she had a brief spell working in the press office at Middlesbrough Football Club.

She said: 鈥淭he 海角直播 course was excellent preparation for working in PR because of its focus on the business nature of public relations.鈥�

Jennie鈥檚 main project on the degree looked at the growing problem of women and binge drinking with her research showing it is likely to get a bigger problem. Her dissertation looked at the effectiveness of government campaigns to shock people into stopping smoking or avoid obesity. Her verdict: Campaigns can alter behaviour in the short-term - but have little impact in changing people鈥檚 long-term behaviour.

The public relations degree is offered by 海角直播 Business School, which is part of the Middlesbrough-based University of 海角直播. For more information about the degree contact the course leader, Maria Hopwood, email m.hopwood@tees.ac.uk or phone 01642 342841.

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