Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the importance of the interaction between science and the news media. Institutions of higher education (HEIs) are important actors in this dynamic, and their public communication efforts – as well as their effects on the news media – are worth analyzing in more depth.

Since the early 1990s, the increasing need for societal legitimation has driven HEIs to expand their communication and marketing activities, including increased efforts to influence news media coverage as well as communication via new channels. Until today, the news media remain an important source of information for stakeholders of HEIs. However, despite the practical relevance of HEIs’ public communication, little is known about the interactions between the external communication of HEIs and news media coverage. The research project “Communication of Higher Education Institutions in Switzerland” is the first of its kind to collect and analyze nationwide data on the external communication of HEIs in Switzerland. The project encompasses all Swiss HEIs (n = 42), including universities of applied sciences (UASs), universities of teacher education (UTEs) as well as the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and full research universities (UNIs). The SNFS-funded project runs from 2019 to 2023 and aims to explore the public communication and visibility of the higher education sector in Switzerland.