I am doing this self-disclosure here (referring to the hidden quadrant of the so-called Johari Window theory where one chooses to disclose those unspeakables that only you know about yourself and nobody else) so that practitioners can get a glimpse into the obstacles that academics face. It is not that we don’t want more contact with practitioners or don’t enjoy it, but our criteria for performance is stringent and we pay a personal price if we practise too much ‘social responsibility’ and do not add to our bottom line.

The fault probably lies with the system—and I do think it is wrong. A 50/50 situation would be much more healthy, in my opinion. Or allow us to focus/specialize—there will be the academics who only want to do research, and there will be people like Estelle and Craig who also enjoy contact with practitioners tremendously, add great value to the relationship (often at a personal cost).

Thank you, Estelle, Craig, and Fraser — for breaking the stereotype, for sharing your personal philosophy on the relationship between academia and practice and for providing some examples of what can be done. I hope we will hear from some others too?

And Brian, “IF I WERE A RICH MAN, tra la la la la la la”, I would invite you as guest speaker in my next master’s class and let your converted theory-besotted fellow practitioners loose on you! But jokes aside, are you prepared to share some reasons for your views on (the failures of) post graduate education? Because I know there are many practitioners who think like you do. And that was actually the main reason for this post. Anyhow, nobody is saying that post-graduate education is perfect. But unless you tell us what is wrong and what you need, how can we even start trying to fix it?

Just to let you know – the Discussion Forums at the University of Pretoria will start again soon in the same format as we used to have them. We will also work closely with the professional associations (national and international) in South Africa, to invite their members to attend. You mentioned above that the original idea came from a group of masters students – I was part of that group of students who followed the taught masters programme in Communication Management at the University of Pretoria a few years ago. There is currently such a huge need among communication practitioners to be trained in management principles, that we have decided to relaunch that masters programme in 2009.

Staff members of our Department of Marketing and Communication Management also try to represent the University on the management committees of professional associations. I have recently relaunched the Northern Gauteng Branch of PRISA (Public Relations and Communication Management Institute of SA)(which used to be the most active in the country before it closed down a few years ago) and am currently serving on their management committee with the portfolio Education and Research. This gives me an opportunity to market our short courses and contract research capacity; as well as to do relevant strategic communication management research among a captive audience.

As past president of the South African Communication Association (SACOMM) (an academically oriented association), I will also attend my first meeting of the Council for Public Relations and Communication Management (CPRCM) next week. This Council includes representatives of all the relevant local and international professional associations and discusses matters of mutual interest. This will give me a further opportunity to liaise with practitioners.

O, and I have launched a very active student association, MC Experience, last year. The main aim of this initiative was to expose the students to the world of work. I encourage them to liaise with the student chapters of the professional associations and with practitioners. They thoroughly enjoy this and they arrange regular community outreaches, issue a very professional electronic newsletter, present workshops etc.

As someone who has been in practice for 17 years, I make a point of staying in touch with practitioners through my community service (as judge for competitions, offering short courses etc). Apart from the fact that I enjoy it tremendously, I regularly find leads for research and curriculum development. Perhaps it is my strong belief in sharing the good news about the profession that keeps me involved with practice.

With regards to practitioners’ general aversion to theory, I must say that my master’s classes over the last 8 years have brought peace of mind about the question whether I/academics are bombarding students with too much theory. At a top research university like the Univ of Pretoria where I used to teach, there is no choice. It has to be done. But I did wonder when I moved to a university of technology (which in SA is supposed to be more practically oriented) how I was going to scale down on my fixation with theory. So I didn’t.

Of course there was no longer a subject like PR theory, but I built a healthy dose into the subjects (more than the students were used to). And lo and behold, there was no hell and damnation and the sky didn’t fall. To the contrary, I was totally flabbergasted at the students’ reaction. They wanted MORE. Some were even angry and others felt cheated because they had never been deeply exposed to theory in their previous studies (most of them having obtained previous qualifications also at universities of technology).

This was an eye-opener and deeply reassuring. I now knew without a shadow of doubt that all that was necessary was to expose practitioners to theory and they recognised the value instantaneously—like I did as a practitioner when I started studying again at the ripe old age of 42, turning to academia to find answers/solutions to the problems I experienced in practice and that other practitioners or my managers/CEOs couldn’t provide direction with either.

Of course one must take into consideration that I am referring here to a select group — experienced practitioners who enrolled for post-graduate studies, probably because they instinctively realised that there was more to PR than writing a press release. But there were also a few who only came to get a piece of paper and got much more than they bargained on. So all I am trying to say is that, in my view, the aversion is there only because of a lack of exposure. But how do we get people to come and study when the aversion is already there. And they do have to come—I am convinced that most of the problems in PR can be solved by education/training.