AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CHRIST APOSTOLIC UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (CAUC) WEBSITE AS A PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOL

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the Christ Apostolic University College (CAUC), Kumasi website as a public relations tool. The CAUC website was assessed with the objective to assess the information and interactivity satisfaction provided by the CAUC website to students. The assessment was to provide evidence based information on the CAUC website as a public relations tool to address the needs of students. In carrying out the assessment on the CAUC website, 80 questionnaires were administered personally by the researchers to gather data from students of the University for analysis. The CAUC has a total student enrolment of 626. Further, 80 respondents which represent 17.9% of the accessible population of 446 were selected for the study. Quantitative research approach was used in the data collection and analysis. The study revealed that students of CAUC are satisfied with the information needs provided by the University’s website underscoring the effectiveness of the CAUC website as a public relations tool. Notwithstanding, the researchers identified that the CAUC website is not interactive enough as about 40% of the students indicated that the website promote interactivity. This can be attributed to the fact that there are not enough interactive features on the CAUC website that ensure interactivity between students and authorities. This has created an information gap between lecturers and students of CAUC. Moreover, the research showed that students of CAUC want other features such as interactive devices to be added to the University’s website page. The study recommends based on the iv research findings that more interactive features should be added to the website in addition to providing pages for student research project, job opportunities or vacancies, research activities of lecturers, examination results and lecture time table. Again, further research is recommended in this area