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Webinar: What Every Business School PR Professional Needs To Know In 2026

 Free Live Webinar | 60 Minutes To Transform Your PR Strategy 

Tuesday 27th January 2026, 2pm UK time / 6am PST/ 9am EST

Student expectations have evolved. Media consumption habits have shifted. Digital platforms dominate the conversation. Traditional PR playbooks aren't cutting it anymore.

Let’s talk about what business school communications should really be focusing on.

2026 is set to be characterised by global change, powerful politics, technological advances, and much more. We’ll explore what education PRs need to know in order to deliver the best communication strategies possible. What might the news agenda hold? What can we prepare for? What tools should we use? This webinar is a smart way to start 2026 as it’s designed to support institutions to have real impact through PR in the year ahead.  

 

Join Industry Leaders Who Know What's Coming Next

Stephanie Mullins-Wiles and Kerry Ruffle from BlueSky Education have their fingers on the pulse. Over the last decade they’ve helped business schools around the world navigate the unprecedented challenges and changes of the sector through effective, creative and future-focused communications strategies and emerge stronger. 

Now they're sharing the communication strategies that will help institutions thrive in 2026 with you.

 

What You'll Discover in This Webinar:

  • How prospective students research and evaluate business programmes today
  • What’s relevant to attract faculty through the media
  • The touchpoints that matter in decision-making processes
  • What stories will reach target audiences in 2026
  • Content formats that drive engagement vs. those that fall flat
  • How to create viral moments without compromising academic credibility
  • The PR challenges every business school will face in 2026
  • Real-time response strategies for the fast news cycle
  • How to prove PR ROI to senior leaders

 

 All of this will enable you to best position your school's programmes and experts in 2026. 

Meet Your Experts

Steph_COPY

Stephanie Mullins-Wiles

 

A formally-trained journalist with extensive experience managing communications outreach for business schools worldwide, Stephanie has worked with more than 50 prestigious institutions including HEC Paris, Saïd Business School at Oxford University, ESMT Berlin, and University of Edinburgh Business School. With qualifications from The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and a first-class degree from The University of Sheffield, she leverages her practical journalism background to guide business schools through effective PR strategies. Stephanie has secured coverage in global publications including Forbes, WSJ, BBC, Financial Times, and The Economist, and serves as a judge for the Association of MBAs Excellence Awards and CIPR Awards.

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Kerry Ruffle

 

Recognised as a leading authority on communications in global graduate management education, Kerry brings over a decade of media and PR experience. With an NCTJ-backed degree in Multimedia Journalism and insights gained both from working within institutions (University of Warwick) and within the media (the BBC / BlueSky Thinking) she has advised top-tier institutions including Imperial College Business School, McGill University's Desautels Faculty, and LSE's Department of Management, as well as international programmes like TRIUM and CEMS. Kerry’s experience has enabled her to serve as a judge for the QS Reimagine Education Awards, well as maintain solid relationships with key international and industry-focused outlets from the Financial Times and the Times of India to Poets&Quants and Times Higher Education. 

This Free Webinar Includes:

  • 60-minute live presentation with real examples
  • Interactive Q&A session - get your questions answered
  • Recording access for your entire team
  • Follow-up consultation opportunity with BlueSky Education

 

Limited Spaces Available – Book Your Place Now >

 

Date: 27th January 2026

Time: 2pm UK time / 6am PST/ 9am EST

Duration: 60 minutes including Q&A

Price: FREE

 

REGISTER NOW >

 

This webinar is designed for communications professionals, PR specialists, marketing directors, and senior administrators at business schools and graduate management programmes.

 

Join The Discussion

Why BlueSky Education?

Founded by the S of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, publishers of the QS World University Rankings and organisers of global MBA, master's and undergraduate events, BlueSky Education specialises in communications for business schools and higher education institutions. Our team has worked with leading business schools globally, understanding the unique challenges of academic marketing - from ranking considerations and accreditation impacts to the delicate balance between commercial goals and educational mission.

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Is this specific to business schools or applicable to broader higher education?

A: While our examples focus on business schools, the frameworks apply to any graduate or professional programme looking to optimise their media strategy. 

Q: Will this be recorded for my team?

A: Yes! All registered participants receive access to the recording - perfect for sharing with communications team members.

Q: Do you understand the unique challenges of academic marketing?

A: Absolutely. Our speakers have worked exclusively in higher education communications and understand constraints like limited budgets, multiple stakeholder groups, and reputation sensitivity.

"

We have been working with BlueSky for a couple of years and we particularly enjoy their proactivity, soft skills and expertise in media relations. The team regularly comes up with innovative ideas to increase EHL Hospitality Business School’s visibility and thought leadership. Their knowledge of the education industry has made our collaboration a great success so far, giving us the opportunity to be featured in several top tier publications.

Lucile Muller

EHL Hospitality Business School

"

Working with BlueSky has been professionally rewarding, extremely fruitful, and inspiring to say the least. Aalto EE has benefitted from their initiatives and thorough knowledge of the higher education market and the audience for our kind of content during the several years we have been cooperating with them. They have continuously come up with new ideas for visibility for us and received our content and article ideas with enthusiasm and commitment to have them published. Our team, Stephanie, Katie, and Jamie are real stars in my books.

Dr. Riitta Lumme- Tuomala

Aalto EE

"

BlueSky Education is one of the best PR agencies I have had a chance to work with. They understand what it is like to work with academics and make it easy for you to share your knowledge with the media. I found them always reactive and constructive in their approach to academic expertise. They introduced me to a wide range of top-tier international media companies. Thanks to their training and feedback I have been able to reach out to audiences around the world.

Professor Ben Voyer

ESCP Business School

"

We’ve been working with BlueSky for many years and that’s for a reason! Their proactive way of working, thinking along whenever needed and their quality of press releases has helped us with our publicity over the years. Working with BlueSky doesn’t feel like working with an agency, but feels more like working with your own colleagues without losing their professionality!

Kunegonde Warneke

Nyenrode Business Universiteit

"

I've worked with BlueSky for 2 years now. Kerry and Kate are absolute gems. They secure our school (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University) tons of excellent coverage. They respond timely, the work is of great quality and they are also just awesome humans. Would recommend.

Danielle Baan

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

"

Stephanie [from BlueSky Education] was a pleasure to work with. As a client, I was always impressed with her dedication, professionalism and responsiveness to my organisation's needs. She achieved excellent media coverage for us, and particularly shone in her ability to leverage case studies to help us develop reputation.

Derek Main

University of Edinburgh Business School

"

BlueSky Education is an invaluable partner in elevating the international media presence of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. The team's expertise to secure impactful placements has made them an indispensable extension of our business school’s PR efforts. We highly recommend BlueSky Education for their professionalism, network and proven ability to amplify our institutional voice across diverse media channels.

Christian Kronberger

Senior Manager External Communications

"

BlueSky Education’s understanding of the higher education landscape, coupled with their global perspective, has not only brought us media attention, but it has also enriched our corporate communications strategies. The team’s large network and tailor-made approaches have supported us for many years in elevating our school’s international profile. We are grateful for the excellent collaboration that continues to drive our mission forward.

Martha (Molly) Ihlbrock

Director of Corporate Communications

"

Our Marketing and Media Outreach department are extremely pleased to be working with BlueSky. Their team of highly proactive and enthusiastic professionals are incredibly efficient, attentive, and knowledgeable, as they always come up with some great ideas of promoting our University's research projects and other key initiatives. I am sure that BlueSky’s contribution to Nazarbayev University's international brand building will very soon result in a growing number of overseas applicants.

Zhamilya Kussainova

Senior Manager, Marketing and Media Outreach

"

I have had the pleasure of working with BlueSky for over a decade. This was during my tenure at McGill in Canada and HEC Paris in France. BlueSky has been an excellent international partner, always responsive, agile, strategic and delivering great results! Their network of media contacts and partners is truly impressive! No media company knows the education field as they do!

Ron Duerksen

former Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, and former Senior Executive Director of Degree, Certification & Short Programs at HEC Paris Executive Education

"

Through our collaboration with BlueSky we have raised our international media visibility and improved our capacity to deliver on PR goals. BlueSky have proven to be competent media advisors and hard-working partners in producing and pitching research communication and corporate news content.

Knut Myrum Næss

Communication Advisor, and Ole Petter Syrrist-Leite, Head of Communication

"

I worked with Stephanie for about three years as she was, at BlueSky Education, the key contact for the UCL School of Management. She was highly professional and effective in promoting my and other faculty members' research to a wide array of global media outlets. Stephanie has great contacts at many prestigious and popular media outlets; thanks to her, I got a few chances to have great interviews with some of them. She proactively searches for opportunities for her clients and produces quality deliverables. Also importantly, she is a very nice person to work with – considerate and responsive with great expertise. Highly recommendable!

Sunny (SunYoung) Lee

Associate Professor and head of Diversity

"

I worked with BlueSky to secure global media coverage for ESMT Berlin. BlueSky were especially proactive in securing top media opportunities for our school and showed the ability to work effectively and quickly when deadlines were urgent. It was a pleasure working with Kyle through BlueSky and I was thoroughly impressed with his professionalism and responsiveness to the school’s needs.

Sascha Rödel

Public Relations Manager

"

The main reason our school started using international PR was to showcase our main expertise, and PR can help our school to spread these messages and raise the visibility across all media internationally. As such, we started working with BlueSky in late 2016. One of the greatest benefits internally since then has been the increased involvement with our schools faculty. Externally, our partnership with BlueSky has been beneficial because I think it helps our school to gain more visibility. I think potential students are watching our website or social media channels and see that, for example, the Financial Times or the Guardian or the Wall Street Journal has recently published an article about our school that gives us, in our school, a lot of credibility, and also visibility.

Sergio Oliveri

Communication Division Manager

"

The team at BlueSky Education continue to demonstrate their detailed understanding of the higher education market and a tested capacity to promote institutional brands and excellence. We regard them as a strategic business partner and a key part of our multi-agency eco-system.

Professor Simon Mercado

Dean of ESCP Business School’s London campus

"

BlueSky PR are extremely proactive, finding new insight and ways of LSE IDEAS promoting its work and expertise across a good spread of international outlets. They are a very professional and hardworking team, managing to combine quick turnaround with great attention to detail. BlueSky are in touch with us on an almost daily basis and the team are all very friendly, making them a delight to work with!

Jessica Keating

Communications Officer, and Emilia Knight, Centre Manager

"

I was working with BlueSky Education under Nazarbayev University global media coverage campaign in 2019. During that time the team has shown extremely high attention to details, punctuality, and ability to work fast and effectively. They made a significant impact on securing amazing coverage about our university in world-renowned global media!

Zhamal Mukanova

Marketing Manager

"

The team at BlueSky are very professional and hardworking. We had great success in getting our research and data into target publications we had previously not been able to reach, and this was all because of the media relationships the BlueSky team had built over the years. Stephanie and Peter were in contact with us almost everyday and were very proactive in pitching ideas that would peak the interest of the press. We are very grateful for the commitment and diligence they provided our team!

Tina Ganguly

Senior Marketing Manager, Europe

"

BlueSky has been a true partner for Nyenrode, ensuring that the right opportunities are utilized at the right time. Moreover, their support has impacted Nyenrode’s initiatives across different regions, themes and programs. Their proactiveness has ensured visibility across some of the most relevant business education channels.

Javier Arias Brenes

International Marketing Manager

"

BlueSky PR deliver great results on a regular basis, with reputable titles across the globe. We’ve worked with other agencies too, and BlueSky stand out from the crowd. They have been fantastic at earning us excellent coverage, pitching ideas to us, and securing comment pieces in various places. The team are on the ball, and really friendly – and the academics really enjoy working with them too which is a great bonus!

Daniel Waterfield

Communications and Marketing Officer

"

HEC Paris have worked with BlueSky PR for many years now and we retain them because they understand our business and our market extremely well. They always produce excellent results and do so in our key target markets around the globe. Their support over the years has led directly to great improved visibility of a number of HEC  Paris initiatives as well as the overall enhancement of the school’s brand recognition outside of France.

Philippe Oster

Director of Communications

"

I wanted to send you my warm thanks for all you have done for the Dean’s trip to Asia and to pass along his gratitude too.  We met our deadlines, and I wanted to say how grateful we are for the opportunities you have created. We could not dream of securing such coverage in South America without your help (and that is true in many of the other countries in which you are supporting us). We will make sure the Dean and others are aware of the ROI we are seeing in terms of long-form meaningful coverage. This sort of coverage is invaluable in demonstrating your impact.

Clare Fisher

Head of Public Relations

"

Working with BlueSky PR made me see the value of public relations – even though in the academic world this is something we do not always fully embrace.  BlueSky were able to translate academic terminology so it was of interest to top tier international press and have also effectively targeted sector publications I was really keen on getting coverage in. One of the articles we worked on together (for The Guardian) attracted interest from the World Economic Forum, who got in touch with me about contributing to a future initiative. For me personally, this was the best result I could have hoped for.

Professor Leonardo Meeus

"

I have worked with BlueSky for roughly two years, to generate practice oriented articles based on my research. Based on my experience I am convinced BlueSky have great skill in helping academic researchers to disseminate academic work by ghost-writing articles for a range of audiences, and seeking press opportunities.  BlueSky has helped me out by proactively seeking relevant press opportunities for my research, and preparing practice-oriented articles. They wrote those articles on my behalf, fully understood my research and perspectives and have helped rephrase my research points in plain language. Their work is high quality and, as a non-native speaker, I really appreciate the help as I cannot do this efficiently on my own.

Dr Chia-Huei Wu

Assistant Professor of Management

"

We were very pleased with the top-tier interviews you secured. Truly spectacular media.

Julie Daum

Senior Director of Communication

"

BlueSky has done a great job for the IMPM.

Dora Koop

Managing Director

"

The team at BlueSky PR understand business education and what makes for an interesting story in the business school space. As a result they are able to turn even the most complex academic research into a “good read” and something that is enticing to the right journalists and editors. They also have contacts at the top business publications around the world and are able to craft press materials specifically to our target markets. Plus, they are great people to work with!

Martha Ihlbrock

Head of Communications and Marketing

"

The team at BlueSky truly are experts in higher education PR. Their knowledge of the industry, the market, and their relationship with relevant press around the world means that they have a good sense of what works with the media, and are refreshingly honest when discussing what won’t. BlueSky are proactive in sourcing and creating opportunities for coverage and always ensure we receive the maximum amount of exposure possible, with the right target audiences.

Yoony Kim

Head of Marketing and Communications

"

It is honestly a real pleasure to work with BlueSky PR. They are extremely efficient and action-oriented and really understand our PR goals. Their consultants are highly knowledgeable with regard to the vagaries of the education sector and use this insight, combined with initiative and resourcefulness, to achieve excellent results. I would recommend their services to anyone within the higher education space.

Valerie Jobard

PR Manager

"

What’s reassuring about working with BlueSky is their comprehensive knowledge of the education market. Unlike other PR firms, they are immersed in the world of education on a daily basis, continually making us aware of new opportunities to promote ourselves. With this knowledge and their extensive contacts with international journalists, we have been able to raise our profile in key markets across the globe.

Leilani Ku

Head of Communications and Marketing

"

Working with the team at BlueSky Education has meant that we have been able to achieve exactly the type of interest we were looking to generate.

Cameron Stevens

"

My training with BlueSky PR has been a great opportunity for me to develop my writing and learn some key tips and tricks in turning a piece of writing into an engaging story. I particularly appreciated how tailored the training was, as it focused on minimising the weaknesses and achieving the full potential of my writing.

Alina Vasile

Events and Communications Graduate Intern

"

BlueSky has been fantastic to work with! My contact has a keen eye for detail and is well-versed the B-school and education arena. She is a thorough professional in bringing out a story and was able to suggest some important dimensions for articles. We were really happy with the network she had with editors and publications. We have had a great time working together on a campaign and look forward to working a lot more in the near future. Would definitely recommend BlueSky for high quality projects across the education spectrum.

Adhikar Naidu

Alumnus

"

I have been a client of BlueSky as an alumn of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Management. As far as my dissertation was concerned BlueSky connected me with journalists at magazines like Forbes, Computer Weekly, The Global Recruiter and People Magazine, which quoted aspects of my dissertation and its main conclusions in their respective articles. My objective was to increase my academic-professional profile in Human Resources practice-orientated magazines. With professional and proactive help, I was able to achieve this within the space of 3-4 months. I recommend BlueSky's professional support to anyone who is seeking visibility to their ideas or professional points of view.

Jozsef Blasko

Alumnus

"

I worked with BlueSky when I was at QS TopMBA.com and they were always excellent to work with.  BlueSky made my job easy as they were always sending me idea and authors for articles.  Through our work together the TopMBA.com network grew massively to include business school deans, notable graduates and current students that would have otherwise remained an untapped source.

Mike Grill

SEO, Content and Community Outreach Executive

"

I have worked with BlueSky PR for a number of years. The people on the Business School account are like an extension of the team. They have worked hard to build an understanding of the School's programmes, research and objectives. By combining this with their professionalism and highly developed sector knowledge they are able to help the School meet its objectives and achieve excellent coverage in a wide range of media outlets from local to global. In addition, BlueSky always look to provide added value. This has been delivered in terms of media training, podcast opportunities for faculty members and writing support for news pieces / articles.

Martin Thomas 

Durham University Business School

"

BlueSky truly understands how to position innovative education models like OPIT in today’s global landscape. Their support has helped us strengthen our presence internationally and highlight the exceptional work of our students and professors, who are at the heart of our academic vision.

Greta Maiocchi

OPIT - Open Institute of Technology

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