The public relations education in master degree level in Turkey: examples of Baskent University, Ege University and İstanbul University

Today, development and rapid change in communication and information technologies, competition in commerce and the increasing effect of public opinion, enlarge public relations content and make it one of the most important issues of the present day. Organizations utilize public relations to portray structure, qualities and traditions of the society, and they also fulfill the need of publicity by the agency of public relations. Within this context, public relations practioners who can At this point, they need public relations practioners who can create strategic public relations solutions, use public relations as a two way symmetrical communication process and evaluate the effects of not only cultural diversity of different regions but also socio economic and political differences is needed. While all of these factors have increase the demand for public relations as a profession, the responsibilities of public relation practioners have increased parallel with the expectation of organizations from the practitioners. The fact that these responsibilities cannot be achieved by an uneducated person, bring on the importance of university education in this field. In this respect, in the current study the public relations education in master degree level was investigated, the features and qualities of the selected 3 universities have been examined by using " Standards for a Master's Degree in Public Relations" which accomplished by Commission on Public Relations Education at 2012. In the first part of this study, the definition of public relations, the historical developments and public relations professions are dealt. In the second part, the concept of education in public relation, the evolution of public relation education in the word and in Turkey are explained. Moreover, "the Commission on Public Relations Education" and "Standars for a Master's Degree in Public Relations" accomplished by Commission are described. In the last part of the study, three master degree public relations programs in Turkey and "Standards for a Master's Degree in Public Relations" are compared in terms of curriculum, credits, course numbers, admission standards, resources needed, technology recommendations, academic qualification, delivery models…etc. At the conclusion and evolution part of the study, results of the comparisons have been analyzed and requirements for better master degree programs in public relations were assessed.