A Descriptive Study on the Effectiveness of Public Relations Programs of Selected Institutions for Higher Learning in Laguna

Abstract

Public Relations in Higher Education as quoted in Bernays (285) is "a tool of persuasion and suggestion to accomplish certain specific objectives such as fund raising. securing better students and teachers etc.'' It is different from PR in general because it has a limited realm. It is only relevant to people who are directly concerned or affected by it. The person in charge of PR in educational institutions for higher learning has the following publics: the alumni, the faculty, the student body, tl1e local community and the local government unit. He also has to face the problem of decreasing enrollments in colleges and universities at present. The paper is a study on the effectiveness of the Public Relations campaign of three schools in Laguna. It aims to find out if institutions for higher learning in Laguna have a public relations program. If there is a public relations program the research aims to find out examples of these PR activities. It also aims to find out if there is a PR person in charge of the public relations program. Furthermore, it aims to discover if the school allots a budget for its public relations campaigns. It also aims find out if the school provides financial assistance, scholarship grants and other support programs to their students. And lastly, the research aims to find out if students consider the school's public relations program or activities in choosing a school. The study done was descriptive in nature. It was conducted in three schools in Laguna. Systems Technology Institute in Sta. Roso, Laguna. It is an educational center offering vocational courses in Information Technology. The second is St. Michaels' College in Binan, Laguna, a private college, and the last is the University of Perpetual Help System Laguna. The researcher used two methods for data collection. The interview and the survey questionnaire. The Public Relations persons of the three said schools were interviewed. And a survey questionnaire was also distributed to fifty students of the three institutions. The respondents were chosen through non-probability sampling. Based on the responses the researcher was able to accomplish the six objectives. The first is to find out if the selected schools have a public relations program. According to the responses, all three schools have a public relations program. The third objective is to find out if there is a PR person in charge of the school's PR campaign. The respondents replied that they do have a person in charge of the school's PR program. The fourth objective is to find out if the schools have allotted budgets for public relations. Based on the responses, all three schools have budgets for their Public relations activities. But STI does not have a fixed budget for their PR campaigns while St. Michael's and UPHSL have fixed budgets-for their PR campaigns. The fifth objective is to find out if the students are provided with financial assistance and other support programs. The respondents replied that their school provides financial assistance to its students. The last objective is to find out if students consider the school's public relations activities in choosing a school. Based on the responses, the students consider the school's public image and public relations activities in choosing a school. At the top of the list is the school's good reputation and the last consideration is the school's popularity. Community relations, location, scholarships, price and ad11ertisements and promotion are second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth on the list respectively. Based on the study, the three selected schools all have effective public relations programs based on the ideal. The researcher also identified other factors which affect the school's enrollment. Some of these are the financial problems encountered by the students and their families, the students’ decision to work after graduation and the competition from o1her schools in the area. At the end of the study, the researcher gave several suggestions to future researchers. They may decide to conduct a comparative-study on the public relations programs of a number of schools or a11other type of organization. They may also focus on the benefits the public relations programs brings to the organization. For the schools, the research could serve as an evaluation tool to gauge whether the public relations program 1hey hove at present is effective or not. For the students, this research could encourage them to maximize the PR program of their respective schools.