Top 12 Public Relations Courses In India in 2023
Public relations have been a known topic around us for decades but the real need to understand and pursue it as a solo career was initiated in the late 90s. Before we dive into this article about the Top 12 Public Relations courses in India, we need to understand what public relations understand and why is it important.
What is PR (public relations)?
Definition: public relations stand for,
the practice of purposefully managing the release and spread of information between an individual or a company and the public to make them aware and affect their perception.
Publicity and PR can sometimes get misinterpreted, but there’s a vast difference between them. In publicity, the information is controlled, organized, and provided by the external parties while in pr, it is controlled internally.
A good example to understand PR would be writing an article that is featuring a client rather than paying that client to be advertised next to that article.
The main goal of any PR is to inform the public, inverters, partners, employees, etc, and persuade them to maintain a good point of view, or positive view about the company, its products, and services, or political decisions.
These public relations professionals generally work for marketing firms, companies, businesses, NGOs, non-profit organizations, and government officials and the main job roles they are offered are, account coordinator, account executive, account supervisor, and media relations manager.
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The roles they play while working with these organizations are,
- They maintain and establish relationships with the target audience, media, relevant trade media, and other leaders.
- They design communication campaigns, write press releases and other content stuff for news.
- They work with the press, arrange interviews, and write speeches.
- They sometimes also act as a spokesperson of those companies, prepare clients for press releases and media interviews and do crisis management.
- They also market activities like brand awareness and event management.
Top 12 Public Relations courses in India
Public Relations courses in India #1 – – School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe)
The SCoRe was founded by a group of 3 PR professionals, NS Rajan, Amith Prabhu, and Hemant Gaule with the aim to provide professional support to all the students. They have a focused envision that is to be,
- Street-smart
- Courageous
- Outstanding
- Restless
- Ethical
Located in the hub of Mumbai, this institute offers a postgraduate diploma in public relations. The duration of the course is 10 months with a fee of ₹2,50,000 with the additional charges of GST.
The course has a practical approach towards the learning procedure including field trips and case studies and is the only program that is endorsed by PRCAI.
The institute also offers scholarships to top performers and has exclusive access to the world’s largest pr summit, PRAXIS, Reputation today, and other conclaves.
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Public Relations courses in India #2 –Xavier’s Institute of Communications (XIC), Mumbai
Xavier Institute of communications is a curriculum of St. Xavier’s college, autonomous that offers a variety of services in training and production. It was first initiated in the year 1969 by the catholic bishop conference of India and now ranks as one of the biggest non-government media centres in Asia.
The institute offers a wide range of diploma and certification courses, including, media, production, pr, planning and marketing, and many more. The eligibility criteria to apply for any of the given courses are,
- Age limit 35 and below.
- 12+3, that is, you should have completed your graduation from the streams like arts, commerce, science, computers, BMM, etc.
- Appearing for the final semester/third-year graduation.
The institute has a credit system in which a single credit means 10 hours of class time or 5 sessions which are divided further as 2hours per class. Diploma classes usually have 400-500 credits and the class timings vary between 10 am to 8:30 pm.
Their diploma course in public relations and corporate communication is a 10-month full-time diploma program. The course contains 32 modules with a total of 451 sessions having a course fee of Rs 2,63,870 including GST, registration, and library fee.
Public Relations courses in India #3 – Symbiosis’ Institutes: SIMC, Pune & SSMC, Bangalore
Dr S. B. Mujumdar is the founder and director of the symbiosis group that has a wide range of schools and colleges spread all around the globe. The symbiosis college that offers courses in public relations in India is SIMC in Pune and SSMC in Bangalore.
Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication is ranked top among the media and communication colleges in India. The main goal of this institute is to promote international understanding through quality education. They provide courses in communication management (MBA) and mass communication (MA MC).
Under communication management, they offer four specializations which are,
- Public relations
- Brand communications
- Media management
- Marketing and media analytics
The MBA in mass communication is a two-year course having a fee structure of ₹6,81,950 which you can pay in instalments as well.
Symbiosis school of media and communication was established in 2009 in Bangalore. Their course in MBA in communication management is the same as that of the Pune institute, i.e. it has the same duration of 2 years which are further divided into four semesters.
Eligibility criteria for applying:
The candidates should be passed out from a university or institution of national importance having a minimum of 50% grades.
International candidates who had qualified for a degree from a foreign University should obtain an equivalence certificate from AIU (Associations of Indian universities).
The course fee for MBA in communication management is ₹4,85,000 per annum, excluding the additional charges of deposit, hostel, and GST.
Public Relations courses in India #4 – Delhi School of Communications (DSC), Delhi
Delhi’s school of communications was established 25 years ago with its first-ever course in integrated marketing communication program which has now improved and contains more advanced topics related to media, communication, and public relations.
They believe in the concept of apprenticeship i.e., half-day work, and offered classes that were only held in the first half of the day. They offer a lot of workshops, presentations and business games.
They offer a 2-year post-graduation diploma program in communication along with masters in mass communication. The course covers specialization programs in, advertising and entertainment management, journalism and public relations, and digital marketing.
The students who pursue their post-graduation course have the option of pursuing a master’s program from distance mode, but it’s not mandatory. The students are also eligible for appearing for two certification programs from the Media and Entertainment Skill Council of India (MESC).
The course is held six hours a day, from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm, and also has a full-time internship period of over six months which is weighed in the overall grading structure of the course.
Public Relations courses in India #5 – Indian Institute of Mass Communications (IIMC), Delhi
Indian Institute of mass communication was established on 17 August 1965 by the minister of information and broadcasting of that time, Smt. Indira Gandhi. In the beginning, the institute had only a few staff, including a few consultants from UNESCO as well.
In its early establishment, the courses they offered were only a few training programs for central information service officers. Years later in 1969, they started a course in postgraduate diploma in journalism for developing countries.
Now, they have established a lot of many branches in India and offer many pg and non-pg, certification, and many more long and short term courses.
They offer a post-graduation diploma program in advertising and public relations which has a duration of one year. This course was initiated in 1981 so that they can address the growing demand for professionals in the PR industry and has different models to cover a variety of topics. The fee structure for a post-graduation diploma in advertising and public relations is ₹1,23,000.
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6. Institute of Marketing Communications India
Institute of marketing communications India was established by Mr Samar Abbas who is also the director, dean, and editor at IMCI.
The aim of this institute is to teach and educate their students about how to increase the value of your brand and offer a post-graduation diploma in advertising and public relations.
The course is further divided into several modules and sessions and provides an in-depth training experience so that you will be able to deal with real-life situations.
The total number of modules are 13 which covers a wide range of topics but in a specific manner so that you’ll be able to choose from various career options like PR specialists, advertising sales agent, and advertising manager after the end of the course.
The duration of the course is one year and is eligible for the students whose minimum qualification is graduation. The diploma comes in two forms, pg diploma and executive diploma in all the courses they offer.
The course fee for pg diploma in advertising and public relations is ₹1,20,000 for regular classes and ₹23,000 for distance and online classes. For executive diplomas, the fee for advertising and public relations for part-time is ₹1,20,000 and ₹25,000 for distance and online classes.
These fee structures are excluded from GST and other services and students need to pay an extra amount of ₹5,500 as an examination fee.
7. MICA, Ahmedabad
MICA, which was formerly known as Mudra Institute of communications, was established in the year 1991 and was the first-ever residential institute in the country.
With its growing establishment, it introduced a variety of courses in marketing, marketing research, advertising, and media and communications. Now, it ranks as the top business school in India.
MICA provides a one-year course in a pg certification program in advertising and public relations. This course aims to upgrade the skills and perspective of the executives in advertising management.
The course aims to provide learning through both theoretical and practical means and runs its batches from 7:30 am to 9 AM on the weekdays.
Eligibility criteria: you should be a graduate from any recognized university in any discipline and should have a minimum of 50% marks. And also should have proficiency in the English language, written and spoken.
The course has a total of eight modules which are further divided as per the topics it covers and has a program fee of ₹1,30,000 plus the GST.
8. Udemy
Udemy is also known as Udemy Inc is a MOOC (massive open online course) provider that is meant to educate and provide knowledge to professionals and students.
Current statics shows that the Udemy platform has over 40 million students, 155,000 courses, and 70,000 instructors who teach in more than 60 languages.
Their headquarters is located in San Francisco and its other branches are spread around the globe including Colorado, Ireland, turkey, Brazil, and India.
Udemy offers a wide range of courses in public relations that has, according to current statics, over 140,000 learners. You can shortlist courses according to your own language, different levels of expertise, ratings, and the best part, many of them are free as well, so you need not worry about paying any amount.
9. Coursera
Coursera was founded by professors of Stanford University, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller in the year 2012. This platform works with colleges and universities to offer, degree, certification online education in various subjects.
The duration of courses on Coursera varies from four to twelve weeks, having few video lectures in a week as well. These courses provided, fun learning assignments, quizzes, weekly exercises, and sometimes an exam as well to finish the course.
They also offer master’s degree programs, degree and certification programs, and other specialization programs in a variety of courses from different universities all around the globe.
You can find over 300 public relations courses that this platform offers. Each course is held by different lecturers or universities, each having different levels of expertise and even a mix of beginners, intermediate, and experts.
10. Skillshare
Skillshare is an American-based online learning platform that was established in New York City, NY in November 2010, and the website, skillshare.com was launched in April 2011.
This company and website were created by Michael Karnjanaprakorn, and Malcolm Ong and the courses they offer are not accredited and are available through subscription.
In August 2012, it launched 15 self-paced courses along with students collaborating to complete a project. Within a year, it grew more, established over 250 courses, and opened its own school of design.
Skillshare offers courses in a wide range of topics, from arts and crafts to business and management. You need to have a basic subscription to access these courses.
They offer video lessons ranging from a half-hour to 1.5 hours with different levels of expertise from all around the globe. For example, if you’re looking for a course in public relations, you will get an infinite number of video-recorded sessions from experts, different universities, colleges, well-trained professionals, and many others.
11. LinkedIn learning
LinkedIn learning was originally founded as Lynda.com in 1995 in California. It was established as online support for books and classes by Lynda Weinman, who was a special effects animator and multimedia professor.
Along with her husband Bruce Heavin, an artist founded and established a digital art school. It was in 2002 when they started offering courses online and soon had hundreds of courses.
It was in 2015 when LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com, and it became LinkedIn learning. A year after this, in 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn and became the owner of it.
LinkedIn Learning has its own app apart from having a website and offers courses in business, creative and technology. It comes with a LinkedIn premium subscription, so you need to be subscribed to it in order to access these courses.
Their presentation or interactive or pre-recorded videos are divided into several sub-videos of 3-5 minutes for easy access and are easy to understand.
12. Vskills
Vskills is the largest certification managed by Cubezoid Solutions Pvt Ltd. It offers certification courses in a wide range of topics including accounts and finance to product design and life skills.
Vskills conducts tests and exams to improve the trainer’s employability. They offer a certification course in public relations officer.
To opt for this certification program you have to first select it and register after which you’ll receive the study material. Once it’s done, you have to go through a one-hour exam and if you pass, you’ll be eligible to get the certification.
The registration fee to get this certification is ₹3,500. The timing is flexible, so you can take the sessions at your convenience.
The course has divided into 10 plus main categories under which there is a wide range of topics that you get to learn. So these are the top 12 public relations courses in India that you can choose from if you want to pursue a career in public relations.
As I say in my every article, these are not the only courses. There are various public relations courses in India that you can look up to. The main aim is to select a course or institute that is suitable as per your comfort and choice.
If you decide to enrol in any of the given courses above, do your own share of research. Reach out to the institute, know about what their course offers in-depth. Visits all the sites that had reviewed those courses, and once you’re satisfied, it’s all up to you what decision is needed to be made.
Hope this article was helpful.
