In the academic year 2023/2024, the first generation of students will enroll in the new university specialist study in Public Relations and Communication launched by the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek. We discussed this important novelty at the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek with Prof. Dr. sc. Helena Sablić Tomić, the Dean of the Academy.
Why did you decide to launch a new university specialist study?
– The role of public relations in all organizations is extremely important today. We are launching the new study because the new generation of managers and collaborators in public relations urgently needs a higher level of communication, management, and strategic knowledge to successfully implement planned projects. The communication environment is changing, and there are new elements that affect the complexity of decisions. The Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek covers the field of music arts: alongside music pedagogy and singing, there are instrumental studies such as piano, string instruments, guitar pedagogy, tamburitza art, and composition, as well as drama, applied and visual arts, media culture, and cultural management, thus developing both top artistic creation and scientific research work. Alongside the previously launched university specialist study in Creative Therapy, the only one of its kind in Croatia, this is already the second specific specialist study of our Academy.
What can students expect from the new study?
– Special emphasis is placed on the new challenges brought by the digital revolution. In this sense, the study encompasses content management in public relations, advertising, journalism, and the production and consumption of content on social media, online, and traditional media. We developed the study program in accordance with the needs of the labor market to offer current and future managers in public relations contemporary knowledge that will provide them with additional competencies for performing jobs in the field of communications.
What are the enrollment conditions?
– The study can be enrolled by applicants who have completed social and humanities sciences, but also others, as the content will be tailored to their professional interests through an individualized approach. The enrollment quota will be defined by the enrollment competition, which will be published at the end of September.
How will classes be conducted and who will be the lecturers?
– Over a total of three semesters, alongside six mandatory courses, students will be offered a range of elective courses that will allow them to profile according to their own affinities. If necessary, applicants will be able to attend part of the classes online. In addition to classes that will cover the theoretical and practical aspects of individual subjects, it is planned that cases will be processed with the help of practitioners during exercises, and that theoretical concepts will be processed through their application in practice during seminar classes. At the end of the study, an independent specialist paper is produced. The lecturers are experts with experience from the real sector and teaching experience in existing studies at the Academy, as well as several external lecturers.
