UQ Ipswich launches innovative PR degree

UQ Ipswich launches innovative PR degree

A big emphasis on applied research will give a competitive edge to a new UQ Ipswich degree in public relations, according to senior lecturer in communications Dr Eric Louw.

Dr Louw said the three-year Bachelor of Social Science (Communications and Public Relations), on offer from 2002, would give students two sets of generic skills. They would learn to do applied (rather than academic) research, and to work with journalists and the media.

"Our graduates will be really competent researchers as well as excellent communicators," Dr Louw said.

"And as social scientists they will have a good understanding of society and of target groups and audiences.

"These are genuinely marketable skills for people who want to be strong, effective PR practitioners. And if they don't, graduates could just as easily find other work, for example as policy advisers to government."

Dr Louw said courses would be very practical with an average of two hours of workshopping for every hour of theory.

"Our graduates will be able to write and market a range of copy targeted to particular audiences," he said.

"They'll also be skilled in lots of other areas such as public relations strategies, budgets, campaigns, Web design, and project management and evaluation."

Dr Louw said six of the 24 courses scheduled for the degree would focus on research.

Eight courses would develop public relations skills and strategies, and the remaining 10 would be electives with a huge range of choices so that students could tailor their own degrees.

Dr Louw said the new public relations degree would also be offered as a dual degree, paired with the Bachelor of Business Management or the Bachelor of Education (Middle Years of Schooling).

For more information, contact Dr Louw (telephone 07 3365 7040 or 07 3878 7004, email e.louw@mailbox.uq.edu.au) or Moya Pennell at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2846, email m.pennell@mailbox.uq.edu.au).