Abstract:

This research analyzes public relations training methods in universities of Russia, European countries and the U.S. and looks at distinctions of the existing education approaches caused by different regulation and management practices in higher education. An important aim of the study was to determine the degree of universality or specialization of educational programs in different countries. The authors define whether the educational programs are predominantly the ‘PR programs’ in its pure form or the joint programs in ‘Advertising and PR’. To answer that question, they analyze the information about universities that have PR programs in Europe, Russia and the USA as well as the most significant factors influencing educational programs. The methods used for collecting the data include an analysis of scientific literature, a content analysis of Internet sources, multiple experts’ surveys of teachers and administrative staff of several universities. In the course of the study it was found that the differences in training of public relations specialists in Russian, European and American universities largely depend on existing educational standards, different ways used for university programs accreditation and the labor market demand. The analysis also shows that Russia, the United States and Belgium demonstrate different mechanisms of labor market influence on the training of specialists in the field of business communications. The existence of different mechanisms brings up a concern of comparability of PR education in these regions.

Keywords:

Public relations, specialists in public relations, educational program, professional standards, labor market, comparative analysis.