Assessing changes in the public communication of higher education institutions: A survey of leaders of Swiss universities and colleges

Abstract

Over the past decades, higher education institutions (HEIs) across the world have institutionalized communication departments and played an increasingly important role in communicating science to the public. While a growing body of research has analyzed the practices and structures of central communication departments in HEIs, little is known about developments over time. This study examines perceived changes in HEI communication along different analytical dimensions and across HEI types. Conceptually, neo-institutional theory is used to derive the factors that foster this change, specifically the new public management reforms and the accompanying coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures on HEIs. The empirical study is based on a survey of 196 members of HEI leadership in Switzerland. The results show that, according to organizational leaders, HEI communication has diversified and intensified considerably over the last five to ten years. It has also become – albeit to a somewhat lesser extent – more professional and strategic. Multiple linear regression analysis reveals that the strongest predictors of perceived change in HEI communication are the goal to build public reputation, the perceived competition among HEIs for public reputation, and the observation of other Swiss HEIs. The study outlines implications for future research and for HEI communicators.

The role of organizations in the public communication of science – Early research, recent studies, and open questions

“…Generally, the latter result seems to be in line with that by Kohring, Marcinkowski, Lindner, and Karis (2013) for German HEIs who claim that "[u]niversity decision makers attribute little influence and only moderate expertise to their PR managers" (p. 177). Fürst et al (2022) further found that respondents ascribing to goals such as good public image and social impact and being aware of their competition with other HEIs, noted more recent changes toward intense, diverse, professional, and strategic PR. There is some evidence thus that strategic goal setting with respect to the social environment of HEIs and the perception of a competition between HEIs are drivers of the change of organizational public relations.…”

“…› the rise of strategic organizational communication of HEIs under the influence of new public management and its implications (Fürst, Volk, Schäfer, Vogler, & Sörensen, 2022;Väliverronen et al, 2022), › the intention and ability of HEIs to establish a centralized public communication strategy that integrates all organizational units and members into one organizational voice or choir (Koivumäki & Wilkinson, 2022;Väliverronen et al, 2022;Voigt, 2022), › the interdependency of scientists' individual public communication and organizational PR (Fürst et al, 2022;Koivumäki & Wilkinson, 2022).…”

“…Yet, systematic studies of changes in HEI communication departments are rare. Fürst et al (2022) present such a study based on a survey of HEI leaders in Switzerland. Asking them about their perception of changes in the past five to ten years with respect to indicators of intensification, diversification, professionalization and increasing strategic alignment of the PR of their organizations, they found evidence for changes of most indicators, but little support for increased influence of the PR department on strategic decision-making of the organization.…”

Organizational and societal goals in tension? A survey of communication practitioners at Swiss higher education institutions

“…Moreover, digitalization now allows communication via diverse formats and channels. These developments led to an expansion of Swiss HEI communication departments and their outputs [Fürst, Volk, Schäfer, Vogler & Sörensen, 2022], and to their growing influence on news media reporting [Vogler & Schäfer, 2020].…”

Communication of higher education institutions: Historical developments and changes over the past decade

“…Overall, the 1980s and 1990s brought about significant changes in higher education in Western countries, with greater competition for students and increasingly scarce public funding (Bühler et al, 2007;Escher, 2001). New public management reforms pressured HEIs to compete with one another and to "legitimize themselves by proving their efficiency and the societal relevance of their performance" (Fürst, Volk, Schäfer, Vogler, & Sörensen, 2022a in this Thematic Section, p. 519). The growing competition strongly revolved around student recruitment, financial resources, and a good public reputation, thereby increasing HEIs' willingness to allocate more resources to public communication (Bonfiglio, 1990;Friedrichsmeier & Fürst, 2012;Koenen & Meißner, 2019).…”