Our guest this week is Richard Bailey, who just stepped down as senior lecturer in PR at Leeds Beckett University, where he first started teaching in 2003.

Bailey is also co-author of a new report by the PR Academy that paints a bleak picture of undergrad PR courses. There is now one solitary university offering a single honours bachelor of arts degree in PR - two decades ago, there were 20.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest issues affecting communications and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

Speaking to PRWeek UK editor John Harrington and news editor Siobhan Holt, Bailey examines at how the BA syllabuses have changed over the years and offers some explanations as to why the number of PR undergraduate courses has dwindled.

These includes issues around fees, alternative ways to get into the sector, and wider concerns around a lack of understanding about the industry.

Bailey looks at how PR employers view BA PR degrees and discusses the continued strength of MA courses, and of journalism degrees in the UK. He also discusses how the types of people taking the courses has changed.

Bailey ends by offering predictions of what might be to come.

PRWeek will be looking at PR academic courses from the point of view of younger practitioners in a future episode of Beyond the Noise.

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