The use of public relations for forging mutual understanding between colleges of education and their publics in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper explores how the public relations can positively influence the relationship between the colleges of education and their publics. The study which used the College of Education as a case study, argues that public relations as an important aspect of every educational institution management and consequently it could be used to build healthy relationships with the publics and erode unfavourable rumors and stories that could drive Colleges into crisis. The study which relied on personal interview and ethnographic study of public relations related documents of the College of Education discovered that the public relations unit relied heavily on notice board publications, internal and external memos, college events as major tools to disseminate information to publics of the College. The findings further showed that there was heavy use of community relations activities by the college to build healthy relationships with her host community.