Public Relations Review 33 (2007) 206–213

Undergraduate public relations education in Spain:Endangered species?

Jordi Xifra ∗Faculty of Tourism and Communication, University of Gerona, Spain

Received 28 September 2006; received in revised form 9 February 2007; accepted 20 February 2007

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the precarious situation concerning undergraduate public relations education in Spain,despite the existence of a Degree in Advertising and Public Relations. In addition to core subjects, which are set by the governmentand required on all university curricula, the Spanish system allows universities to complete their curriculum with other compulsoryand elective courses. Given this freedom, universities have failed to come up with either the specific contents for public relations orfor liberal arts, social sciences and business courses that will enable students to enter the profession. In light of the future restructuringof degrees through the Bologna Process, this situation is a serious threat to the continuity of public relations teaching in Spanishuniversities.© 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Public relations education; Undergraduate education; Public relations curriculum; Spain; Bologna Process

1. Introduction

In Spain, public relations were first taught in universities in 1974, when the government provisionally approved theDegree in Information Sciences. This included a specialization in Advertising and Public Relations, as an extension ofa previous specialization in Advertising created in 1971. However, it was not until August 1991 when the Ministry ofEducation and Science (MEC) definitely authorized a Degree in Advertising and Public Relations (Xifra & Castillo,2006). The Spanish university system currently has a Degree in Advertising and Public Relations that is offered by 32universities (Huertas & Cavia, 2006; Xifra & Castillo, 2006). According to data gathered by the MEC, in 2004 over11,000 students were enrolled on this course in the whole of Spain (MEC, 2006). So, although the Spanish systemdiffers from the Anglo-Saxon one, the government has set up undergraduate public relations education as a major—oneof the two main content, alongside advertising, as a degree that is official nationwide.

In light of these data and in line with the Spanish university system structure, one might reasonably believe this tobe a mature country in terms of public relations education. However, reality does not permit such optimism becausethe system is not shored up by a scientific community that is strong enough to transfer the right knowledge to students.According to MEC data (www.mec.es), 195 scholars are registered in the Audiovisual Communication and Advertising

∗ Tel.: +34 972 41 89 04; fax: +34 972 41 87 32.E-mail address: jordi.xifra@udg.es.

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.02.006

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knowledge area1 (the area to which public relations scholars belong), of whom only 38 (19.48%) are public relationsresearchers and scholars. It is therefore possible to conclude that public relations teaching in Spain is not unaffectedby the global problem pointed to by Botan and Hazleton (2006): “some ‘professors’ of public relations with zeroacademics training in the subject area” (p. 3).

Thus, the main purpose of this study is to investigate if the degree in public relations meets the primary targetof preparing students for an entry-level position in public relations and advancing “advance over the course of theircareers into leadership roles” (Commission on Public Relations Education, 2006, p. 43).

In addition, this situation must be contextualized in the framework of the so-called “Bologna Process” which willentail a total overhaul to the structure of university studies in Spain.

2. The Bologna Process

The Bologna Process aims to establish by 2010 a European area for higher education formed by 45 countries,achieving full student mobility and mutual recognition of credits and degrees. This will no doubt affect academics,researchers and staff working in the higher education sector.

It is named after the place where it was proposed, the University of Bologna, with the signing, in 1999, of theBologna declaration by ministers of education from 29 European countries in Bologna (Italy). This was opened up toother countries and further governmental meetings have been held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003), Bergen (2005) andLondon (2007).

The basic framework adopted is of three cycles of higher education qualification: bachelors, masters and doctoraldegrees (the actual naming of the degrees may vary from country to country). In most cases, these will take three, twoand three years, respectively, to complete, but the framework is moving towards defining qualifications in terms oflearning outcomes and the length in years is in no way set in stone. A framework of qualifications for the Europeanarea for higher education was adopted by the ministers responsible for higher education at a meeting in Bergen in May2005. These levels are closer to the current model in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland than that whichexists in most of Continental Europe, where the model is often based on the magister or diploma. In any case, programlength tends to vary from country to country, and less often between institutions within a country.

The Bologna Process does not mean that the European countries that have adopted it are going to apply commonstandards for degrees in various disciplines. In fact, the process is now moving away from strict convergence in termsof time spent on qualifications, towards a skill-based system.

During this implementation, in addition to setting the contents of degrees according to the skills students areexpected to acquire, Spain has decided to eliminate state regulation and increase universities’ autonomy and flexibilityin determining their own courses. Each university will henceforth be free to decide upon the degrees and contents it sodesires.

Additionally, the Spanish government has decided to delay adaptation to the European area of higher education untilthe very last minute (2010), which should be enough time to ensure the survival of public relations education withinthe new context.

3. Undergraduate public relations education in Spain: structure and paradoxes

The Spanish curricula are organized in cycles. There are three types of undergraduate studies.

3.1. First cycle studies only

They are three years long, and besides basic and general education contents, they also include courses oriented tocarrying out determinate professional activities.

1 The Spanish government groups knowledge into what are known as “knowledge areas”. Spain has a closed catalogue of knowledge areas. Ascholar can only belong to one knowledge area by virtue of his/her qualifications and experience.

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3.2. First and second cycle studies

The first cycle is at least a two-year period, and it includes basic and general knowledge. The second cycle, whichis also at least a two-year period, gives the student a deeper and more specialized knowledge of the respective studiesand also to a training to carry out determinate professional activities. The Degree in Advertising and Public Relationsis a first and second cycle studies, although students who have already completed a different first-cycle course can gainadmission in the second cycle providing they take complementary courses.

3.3. Second-cycle studies only

The student can enter in them if he/she has already finished a different degree, or the first cycle of similar degrees,and has the requirements established by the respective curricula, or the required formation complements.

Independently of its structure, studies are organized by credits, which make up the system of assessment boundto the duration of the courses. One credit corresponds to 10 h (lecture, working-class or equivalent). Each course isassigned a number of credits. The degree is awarded after passing a certain number of credits, pursuant to the structureestablished by the degree’s curriculum. First- and second-cycle degrees must have a minimum of 300 credits. TheDegrees in Advertising and Public Relations range from 300 to 332 credits.

The curricula are classified by subjects, which may be of four different types. Core subjects (materias troncales)are courses decided by the Ministry of Education and Science; they are the same in every Spanish university forstudies leading to the same degree. Compulsory subjects (materias obligatorias) are courses that each university freelydecides and includes them in the curriculum for a given degree. All the students following a determinate degree haveto pass them. Elective subjects (materias optativas) are freely decided by each university and offered to all the studentsfollowing a given degree. Subjects are organized in courses. The student takes courses.

Therefore, the Spanish university system lies somewhere between universities’ right to autonomy as set down inthe 1978 Constitution and the aforementioned governmental regulation on core subjects and their content. Universityautonomy means that universities are free to set their own compulsory and elective subjects when drawing up thecurriculum. The regulation of core subjects determines approximately one-third of the curriculum. In the case of theDegree in Advertising and Public Relations, which has 108 core credits, this percentage ranges from 36% for mostcurricula, those with 300 credits, and 32.5% for curricula with 332 credits.

The core subjects in the first cycle are: Analysis of the Social Environment and its Evolution (8 credits), AudiovisualCommunication (12), Newspaper Journalism (12), Informative Documentation (6), Language (8), Advertising andPublic Relations (12), and Theory of Communication and Information (10). The second cycle ones are: AdvertisingCreativity (10 credits), Advertising Media Planning (10), Systems and Processes of Advertising and Public Relations(10), and Public Relations Theory and Techniques (10).

In The Professional Bond—Public Relations Education and the Practice, the Commission report on Public Rela-tions Education (2006), the Commission states that “public relations education must be interdisciplinary and broad,particularly in the liberal arts and sciences” (p. 43). Additionally, according to this recommendation, the Commissionreports that the ideal public relations major would include a minimum of five courses. Thus, an academic emphasisshould minimally include these courses: Introduction to public relations (including theory, origin and principles);Public relations research, measurement and evaluation; Public relations writing and production; Supervised workexperience in public relations (internship), and an additional public relations course in law and ethics, planning andmanagement, case studies or campaigns.

The governmental regulation of core subjects does not account for liberal arts, social sciences and business courses.It is incumbent upon the universities to set these subjects (as compulsory or elective) according to their universityautonomy.

There is only one core subject specific to the field of public relations—Public Relations Theory and Techniques,whilst two are shared with advertising—Advertising and Public Relations, and Systems and Processes of Advertisingand Public Relations. Conversely, the subjects specific to the field of advertising are Advertising Creativity, andAdvertising Media Planning. In terms of credit numbers, then, a first imbalance can be seen here. Whilst 21 credits areallocated to the domain of public relations, advertising receives 31 credits.

The descriptions of the subject contents are also incoherent. The Advertising and Public Relations descriptor states:“Theoretical and practical introduction to advertising and public relations and to their organizational structures”; and that

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of Systems and Processes of Advertising and Public Relations: “Description and research of communication processesand the interrelations between those involved in advertising and public relations: advertisers, institutions, companies,media and receivers”. Lastly, the Public Relations Theory and Techniques descriptor is as follows: “Designing, imple-menting and developing persuasive communication policy strategies and applications in institutions and public andprivate organizations”.

What immediately stands out in these descriptions of the compulsory contents of core subjects that have been set bythe state is the contradiction in the title and descriptor for both Advertising and Public Relations and Public RelationsTheory and Techniques. Whereas the descriptor for the first mentions a “theoretical introduction”, the second – whichcarries the word ‘Theory’ in its title – makes no reference whatsoever to theoretical analysis. This paradox reveals arather unfortunate choice of subject names.

On the other hand, if we list the descriptors for core subjects in public relations set by the MEC, the following corecontents are obtained: introduction to the theory and practice of public relations (core subject Advertising and PublicRelations), strategies and techniques in public relations (core subject Public Relations Theory and Techniques), andimplementation of public relations campaigns (core subject Systems and Processes of Advertising and Public Relations).Therefore, the state regulation of core subjects covers some of the knowledge suggested in The Professional Bondreport but by no means all, with the absence of practical training being of particular significance. Moreover, the numberof public relations scholars (38) indicates that most universities only have one scholar in each field. This means thatmany contents are taught by scholars who are not specialists in public relations. As a result, the following researchquestion and hypotheses were proposed:

RQ1. Given their autonomy, how have Spanish universities complemented the core subjects through compulsory andelective subjects in public relations?

H1. In Spanish undergraduate public relations curricula, liberal arts, social sciences and business education is lacking.

H2. In Spanish undergraduate public relations curricula, specific public relations education is all but confined to coresubjects and is not as comprehensive as required to prepare students for an entry-level position in public relations.

4. Method

A survey was sent out on the occasion of the III Interuniversity Forum of Public Relations Researchers (Tarragona,April 2005), to public relations scholars from all 32 universities that offer the Degree in Advertising and PublicRelations. They were asked to state all courses (name, syllabi, and credit value) in public relations teaching by category(core, compulsory and elective) and to say whether courses that covered both advertising and public relations contentswere taught by two scholars, one from each specialty. Twenty-three answers were received and information on theremaining curricula and syllabi was obtained from the other university websites. This enabled us to gather the necessarydata on all 32 universities. A reliability check for these variables was unnecessary because the coding required onlycareful transcription of the title of each course. The syllabi for each course were examined in order to ascertain if theyincluded knowledge that was not covered by specific subjects.

The only directory (an unofficial one) of public relations scholars and researchers in Spain is the AIRP’s (Associationof Public Relations Academics) one which lists 38 Spanish scholars in the field. In order to glean opinions on students’practical education, qualitative interviews were conducted with public relations scholars. Interviews lasted from 10to 20 min on average. Twenty-nine responses were received, which as a sample fraction of 76.31% is consideredacceptable (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000).

5. Findings and discussion

5.1. Interdisciplinary education

As The Professional Bond report warns, “public relations education must be interdisciplinary and broad, particularlyin the liberal arts and sciences” (p. 42). Likewise, when it comes to setting the contents of directed electives, theCommission on Public Relations Education (2006) states: “Certain content in other disciplines should be consideredessential for the development and preparation of public relations professionals” (p. 47).

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Table 1Undergraduate contents offered by Spanish universities

Contents Number of universities Percentage of universities

InterdisciplinaryBusiness management 18 56.25Marketing 32 100Accounting 0 0Finance 0 0Economics 22 70.4Consumer behavior 29 90.62Political science and the political system 6 18.75Public administration 6 18.75Social psychology 27 84.37Sociology 25 78.12Cultural anthropology 3 9.37Spanish and Spanish writing 32 100Government and political campaigns 6 18.75Intercultural communication 2 6.25Ethnic and feminist studies 0 0International business and communication 0 0

Public relationsTheory, origin, principles and professional practice of public relations 32 100Public relations law and ethics 9 28.12Public relations research, measurement and performance evaluation 16 50Public relations planning and management 24 75Public relations writing and production 19 59.37Public relations action and implementation 5 15.62Supervised work experience in public relations 4 12.5

As can be seen in Table 1, some interdisciplinary contents are included in most curricula. These contents belong tothe courses offered under the umbrella of the core subject Analysis of the Social Environment and its Evolution. Thesame applies to Spanish and Spanish Writing which is the only content in the core subject Language.

However, despite these cases, the data also suggest that courses and contents in liberal arts, social sciences, andbusiness are the major oversight of core and compulsory subjects. Thus, one of the most fruitful research fields inrecent years, the relational approach to public relations (Ki & Shin, 2006), does not appear on any Spanish curriculum.None of the universities offer relationships and relationships building or interpersonal communication. This confirmsH1, which is further corroborated by other significant absences such as courses on ethnic and feminist studies or oninternational communication.

On the other hand, virtually all of curricula include courses in consumer behavior. This is due to the fact that the degreeis partly in advertising. The same occurs with marketing courses, which are taught at all universities. The instrumentalperspective that Spanish researchers have on public relations (Xifra & Castillo, 2006) clearly comes through as theknowledge that is imparted in undergraduate education. Another fact that sheds light on this phenomenon is thatfour interviewees considered the following subjects to belong to the field of public relations: Direct and PromotionalMarketing, Promotion and Sales, and Advertiser–Agency Relations (sic).

This technical vision of the field suggests that there is no management function approach to it. As a result, coursesin business management and organizational behavior are not equally weighted in all universities. More than half ofcurricula offer contents in this field. Of these, barely 6 universities have compulsory courses in business management,whilst at the remaining 12 they are electives. No university offers courses in finance and accounting. Likewise, thereis little teaching in political sciences and administration. Merely six universities (18.75%) offer courses in politicalscience, political system and public administration.

5.2. Public relations education

Contents in advertising are given preference over those in public relations. This is evident not only in the quantitativeimbalance of core subjects in favor of advertising, but also in qualitative factors, such as confining creativity to

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advertising alone (core subject Advertising Creativity). This is only to be expected given the fact that the knowledgearea to which public relations scholars belong, as mentioned above, provides no mention of their own field—AudiovisualCommunication and Advertising, with public relations coming under the umbrella subject of advertising. Besides thecore subjects, the other contents suggested in The Professional Bond report are insufficiently well covered by Spanishuniversities, as predicted in H2 (see Table 1).

This imbalance in public relations contents is a result of core subjects on the introduction to public relations, itsplanning, and techniques, although not all universities offer the contents of Public relations research, measurement andperformance evaluation, and Public relations planning and management (instead choosing to cover market researchand marketing management).

As far as the subject of ethics and law is concerned, it is worth noting that only the University of Alicante and theUniversity of Barcelona have a course in public relations law, albeit shared with advertising law. The University ofAlicante and the European University of Madrid are the only ones to have a compulsory course in public relations ethics.The University of Barcelona and University of Gerona offer these contents as electives. Six universities (18.75%) offerclasses in ethics as part of their introduction to public relations, demonstrating the paucity of theoretical developmentof the field (Xifra & Castillo, 2006).

Although public relations technique is a core subject, 18 universities have compulsory courses in corporate identity.The Commission on Public Relations Education includes these contents in the category Public Relations Writing andProduction. The paradox of this is that other more relevant and essential matters in this category such as public relationswriting, are only offered by the University of Gerona in its compulsory course Public Relations Writing and Production(12 credits) and on journalism writing and creative writing courses. This corroborates the belief that the lack of specialistpublic relations scholars has led to courses being taught by specialists in corporate communication from the areas ofmanagement or marketing. This also has a bearing on the absence of integrated communications courses. Indeed, incontrast to the United States where “many universities are offering joint public relations/advertising programs, in partbecause of the growing trend in integrated marketing communications” (Wilcox & Cameron, 2006, p. 23), publicrelations was only attached to advertising because of the efforts of the Deputy Director General of Advertising andPublic Relations at the Ministry of Information and Tourism during the last years of Franco’s rule (Urzaiz, 1997). InSpain, the instrumental understanding of public relations as a marketing tool has prevented the creation of courses inwhich integrated communications are approached as a new trend.

Botan and Taylor (2004) have established how issues management can apply across all areas of applied communi-cation, particularly in health, risk and political communication. The shortcomings in public relations teaching in Spaincan also be seen in this field. Only the Open University of Catalonia offers issues management teaching on the PublicRelations Theory and Techniques core course. This university is also the only one to offer an elective in pressure groupsand lobbying, although the study of lobbying is included as part of the contents of other courses in 18.75% (N = 6) ofthe curricula of Spanish universities. Health communication or political communication courses are available in onein three universities. From this applied public relations standpoint, is an irony that no more than one university, theUniversity of Vigo, has an elective in public relations and tourism, the country’s main economic industry. The resultsconcerning management case studies or campaigns courses are similarly dissatisfactory. Merely 15.62% (N = 5) ofthe universities have courses on these areas, all of which are elective. This disjunction with industry can also be seenby the scarcity of crisis management courses. Barely 28.12% (N = 9) of the universities have electives on this matter,whereas 70% of public relations firms and 71.9% of integrated departments deal with crisis communication (ADECEC,2005).

As Heath and Coombs (2006) pointed out: “The classroom is only part of the undergraduate educational experience”(p. 432). In Spain this is far from true. Internship is offered in four (12.5%) universities, but only in the University JaimeI practicum is a core course. One of the interviewees neatly summed up what lies behind this: “It’s hard enough findingpublic relations scholars, let alone getting firms to take on our students”. According to data from the National Agencyfor Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA, 2005), in the academic year 2003–2004, 3182 students enrolledon a degree in Advertising and Public Relations in the whole of Spain,2 1155 (36.3%) of whom went to universities inMadrid and Barcelona, the nation’s two largest cities. Furthermore, in 2006, in Catalonia alone 1023 students appliedto do a degree in Advertising and Public Relations (http://www10.gencat.net/dursi/).

2 In 2003–2004, 27 universities were offering this degree.

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These data suggest that the industry cannot cope with practical training for so many students. One interviewee said:“We offer in-company training as an elective because we don’t want to end up with students stuffing envelopes in anagency”. “University fees are regulated by law and are far below those of practitioners for them to want to dedicatetheir time to teaching”, said one scholar, highlighting the shortfalls in the Spanish system in involving the professionalsector. However, the most frequently stated reason behind the disjunction of theory and practice is a lack of confidenceamongst Spanish practitioners, most of whom have no academic training in this field. In this regard, Spain suffersfrom a universal irony: “only a very small number of the nation’s senior-level public relations executives and managersstudied public relations at a university” (Wright & Turk, 2007, p. 582). As another interviewee said: “We don’t havethe support from industry leaders”.

6. Conclusions

Undergraduate public relations education in Spain is not strong enough in order to provide students with across-the-board education in the liberal arts, social sciences and specifically in public relations. Public relations is the invisiblesubject in Spanish universities.

The autonomy given to universities allowing them to set their own compulsory and elective contents has clearlyundermined public relations, relegating public relations education to second place. Despite its name, the Degree inAdvertising and Public Relations does not include two majors. It is an Advertising major with a Public Relations minor.The fact that public relations educational did not appear until 1974 (three years after the degree in Advertising wascreated) when the words “and public relations” were merely tagged on to the titles of the main advertising courses andthat it was not consolidated as a degree until 1991, has thwarted the growth of a community scholars who are trainedto impart the right knowledge. These scholars have developed the core subjects set by the government, but universitieshave failed to provide the minimum required. Thus, there is no need for an “emphasis on ethics and transparency, newtechnology, integration of messages and tools, interdisciplinary problem solving, diversity, global perspectives andresearch and results measurement” (Commission on Public Relations Education, 2006, p. 6).

As L’Etang and Pieczka (2006) pointed out, “public relations education should be integrated and interdisciplinary”(p. 442). The results of this study reveal that in Spain this is far from being the case, and that the lack of specificteaching in public relations is compounded by insufficient education in liberal arts, social sciences, and business. Theadmissions rules for the Degree in Advertising and Public Relations support this claim. Students from any first-cycledegree can be admitted straight onto the second cycle of the Degree in Advertising and Public Relations simply bytaking the core subjects in public relations from the first cycle. Then, such students graduate with no teaching in liberalarts, social sciences, language and business.

Nevertheless, the most alarming conclusion relates to the forthcoming implementation of the new university educa-tion system which began with the Bologna Process. In the field of communications, universities will most likely takeadvantage of the existing structure, but in light of the situation described in this article, it would come as little surpriseif the current degree in Advertising and Public Relations were to become a degree in Advertising, with public relationseducation being confined to one or two courses or wiped out altogether.

7. Lobbying for the future

In view of this situation, the AIRP has recently created a Commission on Public Relations Education based aroundthe existing model in the United States. Its aims are to advise on the implementation of new degrees and to monitortheir implementation. The primary goal of this undertaking is to maintain and strengthen knowledge and skills so thatstudents graduating with undergraduate degrees in public relations have both the knowledge and skills necessary toenter the profession and to assume a leadership role over the course of their careers.

One of the first initiatives in meeting this target has been to make formal contact with members of the governmentand the professional sector (represented by ADECEC, Spanish Association of Public Relations and CommunicationConsultants) with a view to setting up a working relationship for the design of future curricula. This alliance withpractitioners also seeks to engage them actively in teaching public relations.

In the coming three years the work of the AIRP and its coalition with ADECEC should lead to greater academicrecognition of public relations teaching from the Spanish government, resulting in degrees that combine the necessarytheory and practice for students to enter the profession with every prospect of success.

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