A Research Study on the Public Relations & Publicity and Advertising Students Accreditation Perception Within the Scope of Quality Management

Abstract

Everything rapidly changes in economic, political, social, and cultural terms during this information and communication era. In this context, higher education institutions need to improve and renew their educationtraining systems and administrative mentalities to meet today’s and future necessities. Therefore, Total Quality Management (TQM), which is meeting the necessities of internal and external stakeholders with the participation of all employees under increasing competitive pressure, has lately started to be included in the administrative mentalities of higher education institutions. In this regard, accreditation processes become part of sustaining the quality by improving and auditing its compliance with various standards and rules. This study examined accreditation perceptions of students of the Advertising program that was in the process of accreditation, and Public Relations and Publicity Program accredited by the ILEDAK, the authorized organization in the accreditation evaluations of the communications faculties in Turkey. This study aimed to compare the accreditation perceptions of students from two different departments, one of which was accredited within the scope of TQM and the other wasn’t. Since accreditation processes in the communication faculties just started a few years ago, no manuscript was written on the perception of accreditation in this field. This study is one of the first studies conducted on Public Relations and Advertising Programs in Turkey, making it authentic and more important compared to other studies. This study was based on the data of a questionnaire performed on 261 students reached through the convenience sampling method. Accreditation perceptions of the students studying in Public Relations and Publicity program that was accredited were higher compared to students of the Advertising program that was not accredited, and surprisingly, Advertising students had higher awareness related to this subject.