The first ever Institute of Public Relations Malaysia (‘IPRM’)-TAR UC Student Chapter was officially launched at the Auditorium of Bangunan Tun Tan Siew Sin, Kuala Lumpur Main Campus on 13 December 2016. The main objective of this student chapter is to provide an avenue for students majoring in public relations to participate, exchange ideas and be exposed to the real practice of Public Relations (‘PR’) through on-going activities and communication with the respective IPRM practitioners. Apart from that, it also aims to equip students with knowledge and skills through numerous industrial and academic-related programmes and activities.
Set up in 1962, IPRM aims at enhancing professionalism among public relations practitioners in Malaysia. It also supports educational activities and research in public relations. It also does training and development of Malaysians by preparing them for a career in public relations.
An opening speech was given by Professor Dr Kiranjit Kaur, an Accredited Public Relations Fellow with the IPRM where she announced that TAR UC is the 8th student chapter to be launched in Malaysia. “An educational institution requires strong collaboration and diverse partners from the industry to make it industry-relevant, as it is important for students to understand first-hand the practices of the PR profession so that they may hit the ground running when they graduate,” she said.
In conjunction with the launch, there were four invited speakers for the PR Industry Forum, who were PR practitioners and academicians. They were Professor Dr Jamilah Ahmad, who is attached to School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Ms Lee Ying Hwei, Associate Director, ROOTS PR, Mr Joshua Lee, Chief Managing Consultant, Hashtag City and Ms Doris Lim, Managing Director, Matrix Communications.
The forum uncovered a lot of interesting areas in the PR landscape. “PR has so much to do with connecting the dots. Read about everything. You have to be a specialist and generalist. It is your right as students to ask questions until you are satisfied and as PR specialists, it is the client’s right to have the best advice”, said Joshua. Doris on the other hand made a pertinent point about actual PR work. “Marketable PR graduates not only have to be equipped with the right skills, they also have to be well-versed with strategic content, have an exposure to management tools which are used for critical analysis and problem solving, as well as have higher order thinking skills.”
