Higher education reputation management through increasing the role of public relations

Abstract

A university's reputation is an important factor in winning the competition and ensuring sustainability. The reputation built by a university must be about its vision and mission. Reputation needs to be managed professionally by an organization namely quality public relations as the spearhead in delivering and communicating information to all university stakeholders. This research aims to formulate how to manage the   reputation of higher education by increasing the role of public relations. The research method used is a descriptive analysis method that combines surveys through questionnaires and in-depth interviews with stakeholders as the main informants. It can be concluded that public relations play an important role in managing higher education reputation based on the results of the research. The built reputation must be based on the values adopted because they become the guideline and direction of the college's development goals. A university's reputation is influenced by accreditation, quality of graduates, human resources, leadership, college rankings, facilities, curriculum, services, community service and innovation, publications and collaborations. Negative factors such as violence, bullying, plagiarism and diploma forgery have the potential to reduce reputation. In reputation management, public relation has a role as a liaison to stakeholders in conveying information about the reputation of higher education. Public relations must manage negative factors that can reduce reputation. The results of this study will be a reference for further research.