POSTED BY Jonny Stone

Quality content has never been a more valuable currency for business schools.

The higher education sector exists in a permanent state of flux. Things are constantly changing. Priorities. Curriculums. Offerings.

Do we all know what it’s like to, on occasion, perform to a level that is less than our best?

The role of PR in supporting student recruitment efforts is well-documented. Few successful institutions overlook the importance of impactful content, expertly crafted for – and strategically placed within – go-to sources for prospective applicants. Far from it. The time, effort and resources that schools dedicate to creating content is staggering.

Nothing irritates me more than when I’m reading something and I come across the aggressively vague remark that ‘online learning is here to stay’.

Securing media opportunities for faculty is one of a university or business school communications professional’s most important responsibilities.

A once-held, later debunked belief in the Western world is that, in traditional Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is made up of two other words: ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’.

Decision-maker: “Tell me why PR matters.”

A timeless truth, understanding what the media is after will always be fundamental to media success, irrespective of the specific year.

Whether at a business school, university, start-up or multinational conglomerate, the men and women that sit in the C-suite are more than just leaders.

In the world of PR and media relations, perception is everything. Optics are all that matter. Nothing is as important as what you see.

When it comes to hiring a new agency to support your business school with external engagement, the criteria can be pretty specific. After all, commissioning this agency to work with you will be an investment of sorts. The funds you allocate to paying for external PR support will inevitably be diverted from – or at least unavailable to – other initiatives or ventures.

So you’ve chosen a PR agency.

According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, 82% of marketers actively use content marketing to achieve their branding goals. Up 17% since 2020, content marketing is recognised by many professionals as an effective, tried and tested means of attracting, engaging and retaining new audiences and customers – and in the case of business schools, prospective applicants.

Industry 4.0: it’s a term that’s become pretty commonplace in recent years.

For countless business schools and universities worldwide, the research that they produce defines them.

The competition to attract élite faculty has never been more intense.

In the fourth episode of season two of the BlueSky Education Thinking Podcast, BlueSky’s Stephanie Mullins and Kerry Ruffle, alongside International BizEd Guru, Matt Symonds, discuss long-term changes to business education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also in the episode, Steph is joined by Hanna-Leena Pesonen, Dean of Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, as well as BlueSky Education’s Jonny Stone and Kate Mowbray, and Jonathan Simon, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Telfer School of Management.

Having a winning PR strategy is vital to the broader success of any organisation, in any field, providing any service.

In episode three of the second season of the BlueSky Education Thinking Podcast, BlueSky’s Stephanie Mullins and Kerry Ruffle are joined once again by International BizEd Guru, Matt Symonds, to discuss the importance of diversity in business education. Also in the episode, Stephanie sits down with Sunitha Narendran, Director of Roehampton Business School, as well as BlueSky Education colleague, Kyle Grizzell.

Truly understanding and being able to measure the impact of PR is key for anyone working in or around the communications space.

“You could say everything has changed.”

When we talk about public relations, people usually think about it almost exclusively in an external capacity, i.e. looking to create a positive image of your company or organisation in the eyes of people and bodies outside of your institution.

We live in a world that is becoming more and more interconnected every day. This has never been more apparent than in the business education sector. Now more than ever before, students are willing to travel all over the world to study on the best programmes at the best business schools. This makes the business education sector well-and-truly a global marketplace. And with that, it makes it an incredibly competitive marketplace!

I think it would be fair to say that right now we are faced with the one of the greatest issues of our generation: COVID-19.

Nowadays, achieving coverage for your business school or university is a challenge to say the least.

Our Prime Minister, (I can’t believe I’m saying this) Boris Johnson, has had a challenging few weeks to say the least. He’s currently engulfed in a PR nightmare for the ages, and every day the situation for poor Boris seems to get worse. However, I don’t really feel sorry for him, as he’s brought it all on himself. He has successfully become one of the most divisive political figures of the last 30 years, and he’s only been in office since the end of July.

Business schools and universities are successful for a whole host of reasons – their longevity, their location, their contribution to the society around them, but their life blood is the quality of their teaching and research – and for this they need the best academics.

Relationship building is key when it comes to gaining success in public relations – especially in the world of business schools.

From the Daily Mirror to the Wall Street Journal, pretty much every widely-read newspaper uses clear language for their readers.

“The press release is dying.”

If you were to throw out the question ‘What does business school PR entail?’ to a number of people you’ll probably get at least one of these three answers: