Public relations in higher education institutions

Universitetinės aukštosios mokyklos, siekdamos išsiskirti iš kitų organizacijų, teikiančių panašias paslaugas, tapti žinomos ar pritraukti kuo daugiau studentų, vis daugiau dėmesio skiria ryšiams su visuomene (RsV). Universitetinių aukštųjų mokyklų ryšių su visuomene raida vyko nenuosekliai ir neplaningai, neatsižvelgus į veiklos savitumą. Taip pat ne visuomet ryšių su visuomene veikla buvo grindžiama tyrimais ar išsamia analize. Dėl išvardintų priežasčių universitetų ryšiai su visuomene suprantami paviršutiniškai, todėl vertėtų aiškiai pagrįsti jų sampratą, išgryninti patirtį, įvardyti elementus, ypatybes, funkcijas, pagrįsti socialiai atsakingos ir etiškos veiklos svarbą ir pateikti jų pritaikomumą siekiant efektyviai išspręsti krizes. Minėtos priežastys iškelia straipsnio tikslą - išanalizuoti valstybinių universitetinių aukštųjų mokyklų ryšius su visuomene ir pasiūlyti, kaip jie gali būti pritaikomi krizių metu. Ryšiai su visuomene yra vienareikšmiškai svarbūs verslo įmonei, socialinei organizacijai, vyriausybei, taip pat ir universitetinėms aukštosioms mokykloms, nes gerina kiekvienos organizacijos veiklą ir padeda išvengti sunkumų. Straipsnyje apžvelgiami veiksniai skatinę universitetinių aukštųjų mokyklų ryšių su visuomene (RsV) plėtrą, ypatybės, elementai, funkcijos ir kaip RsV įgyvendinami, kai kyla krizės.Higher education institutions as well as other organizations want to emphasize their distinctive competencies and values, to attract more prospective students and to become better known. Therefore these institutions have started to pay more attention toward public relations. However, public relations is a new subject in higher education area and these relations are not comprehensively developed as well as investigated. Therefore traditions, functions, principles of public relations in higher institutions are not clear. The process of public relations development in higher education institutions is in progress and the main principles of PR are taken from the private sector. Public relations in private sector are better developed, but, higher education institutions cannot transfer all the principles of public relations from enterprises, because these organizations have different purposes. The state higher education institutions seek to be opened to the society and provide them with knowledge and etc. However, the enterprise's purpose is to get profit. Therefore the authors of the article discuss the conceptions, development and peculiarities of PR in higher education institutions. The individual elements of public relations in higher education institutions are traditions, publics and departments, which are responsible for public relations. Traditions are important and unique attributes of higher education institutions. Public relations can strengthen and emphasize these elements, such as rich history, buildings, exceptional events and even outstanding graduates. The internal and external publics in higher education institutions are distinctive and very important, too. Unfortunately institutions concentrate on the relations with just one external public - media - and forget about others audiences. Therefore, public relations are not very well-balanced. Just regular communication with all the publics can warrant good public relations. The functions of public relations involve a lot of elements: from lobby till crisis management, therefore, the understanding of scientists how to divide these functions is different. The functions of PR could be divided according to the purpose of PR programs, according to the programs' implementation stages and according to the tasks set by PR practitioners. The division of the functions and the consequent need for implementation of these functions are also presented in the paper. One of the purposes of PR is to help the organization to avoid problems. The biggest problems are named as crisis. The implementation of public relations in higher education institutions through the function of crisis management is also analyzed in the article. Crisis in organizations appear mostly because of internal and external reasons. The article proposes to analyze where crisis can appear, to prepare for them in advance and to make a crisis management plan. The plan consists of six stages. Well balanced public relations can help higher education institutions to strengthen their targets and to reach target publics as well as to improve organizations' daily tasks. Aiming to outstand from other organisations delivering similar services, become more popular, or attract more students, universities pay growing attention public relations (PR). Public relations of the universities developed inconsistently and in unplanned way without taking into account specifics of their activities. In addition, public relations activities not always were based on research and detailed analysis. Due to the reasons mentioned, public relations of universities are understood superficially, thus it might be useful to substantiate the concept; clarify experience; name elements, particularities, and functions of public relations; as well as substantiate the importance of socially responsible and ethical activities; and deliver the possibilities of their application in order to effectively solve crisis situations. The reasons mentioned raise the objective of the article, i.e. to analyse public relations of state universities and suggest the way of their application in crisis time. Undoubtedly, public relations play important role in business organisation, government, and universities, since they improve activities of organisations and help overcome difficulties. The article overviews factors that stimulated the development of public relations in universities, their particularities, elements, and functions, as well as the ways of implementing public relations in crisis time