The alarm woke me at 5am the other Saturday. Several inches of snow had fallen over the Yorkshire hills, but I still made it in time to start my class in London by 10am. Across Russell Square from where I was teaching, a different group were gathering to study the same course – the CIPR Diploma in Public Relations – at the headquarters of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Since the start of the year, I’ve taught on this course in Leeds, London and Sofia (Bulgaria). It’s delivered at various other UK centres and in several different countries too. Most classes are taught face-to-face, but it’s also available online by distance learning through the PR Academy.

The Diploma has been the primary professional qualification in UK public relations for over a decade. In that time, I’m guessing that well over a thousand people will have gained the qualification. I’ve certainly taught hundreds.

Who are these people, why do they study it, and who needs a professional qualification for a semi-professional activity like public relations? If I can crudely generalise, the typical candidate is in her 30s and working in the public or not-for-profit sectors. She’s mastered the technical aspects of PR (media relations or internal communication, say) but believes there must be more to it. She needs the bigger picture if she’s to progress upwards or move laterally into another organisation. She needs to add a manager’s vocabulary to her technical skills.

I used to joke that during the year-long course, candidates would change jobs, move house, get married, have children or get divorced. It’s no joke anymore because too many tick too many of these boxes.

They certainly do seem to find new jobs. Is this as a result of studying, or is it that people who choose to study are more questioning and are already looking for something new?

I suspect I know the answer to this. I’ve taught so many intelligent practitioners (they may or may not already have higher degrees) – and have seen their willingness to consider and critique public relations from various practitioner, outsider and academic perspectives.

We give ourselves a hard time on the course because we need to understand and challenge the voices claiming that PR is mere propaganda, or that it doesn’t and can’t add value to the organisation at a strategic level. Authors Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy, writing on public relations, have described it as “professional, but never a profession“. We have had a professional institute for over 60 years, a professional diploma for over ten, yet the majority of practitioners have still not signed up to the professional project.

It’s also true that many avoid the phrase public relations, preferring to say they work in public affairs, corporate communication, change management or scores of other practice areas.

I’m not troubled by this, since it reflects the dynamism of our field and suggests at the unpredictability of the future. If we defined our practice only by what we did in the 20th century, then we would mostly work in press offices and be doomed to extinction at some point in the present century. It also gives interesting work to itinerant tutors.

Next, our course resumes in Leeds when we’ll be working through a strategic planning challenge. A 7am alarm call should be OK on Thursday and Friday.

Richard Bailey is a senior lecturer in public relations at Leeds Metropolitan University. He blogs on PR at www.prstudies.com.