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Dr.Tudor Vlad, director of the Cox International Center, teaching during the certificate program at Babes-Bolyai University, Romania. |
Collaboration With Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, On Certificate Program
Students who want to develop careers with a communication component need to see mass communication as a broad field, that includes public affairs, government, public relations and other areas, Dr. Tudor Vlad, director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, told the participants in a certificate program in Romania in May.
“What surveys of journalism and mass communication schools in the United States have shown after the economic crisis is that graduates with a public relations specialization have been more successful than their colleagues in finding good jobs,” Dr. Vlad told the young professionals who attended a week’s series of classes within our certificate program Community and Urban Development. Dr. Rusty Brooks of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government will also lecture in this program.
This program is a collaboration between the Public Administration Department of the College of Political, Administrative and Communication Studies (FSPAC) at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj‑Napoca, and two UGA units, the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and the International Center of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
The certificate is another step in the collaboration between the Romanian university and the Cox Center. Forty participants attended the course. Many of the participants were already working in public administration in the city of Cluj-Napoca and the Transylvania region.
The Cox Center is the international outreach unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
“We need to understand that a high position in local or central administration doesn’t automatically mean good communication skills,” Dr. Vlad said. “It takes time, energy and good instructors to learn how to create messages that will have the desired impact. We tend to forget that in public speaking, communication is not what one person tells another: it is what the listener takes away and what happens as a result of that takeaway.”
While in Cluj-Napoca, Dr. Vlad also met with Dr. Ioan‑Aurel Pop, Rector of Babes‑Bolyai University, with Dr. Calin Hintea, dean of the College of Political, Administrative and Communication, and with a group of local businesspeople interested in brand strategies.
The discussion focused on the future of the partnership between the University of Georgia and the Romanian higher education institution and on the role of modern universities in the communities.
