Bec Oakes
Ever wanted to become an influencer? One university will teach you how to do just that.
That's right, starting next year, South East Technological University (SETU) in Carlow, Ireland will offer a full-time degree in influencing.
The university's Bachelor of Arts degree in Content Creation and Social Media will provide students with a comprehensive insight into the lucrative, attention-driven profession.
Course units are set to include crisis management, public relations, celebrity studies, social psychology and video and audio editing.
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While short courses in the influencer economy have been offered before, Irene McCormick, a senior lecturer at SETU, who co-designed the degree, told The Washington Post that the university is likely the first in the world, to offer a degree on the profession.
To an extent, SETU’s influencer degree offers courses similar to those of a digital marketing degree.
"It isn’t unlike other aspects of media landscape, and we have been offering degrees in media for decades, so the staff are well skilled," McCormick said.
The idea for the unique degree offering came about when McCormick learned from her daughter that one of SETU's new students, Lauren Whelan, was a 'massive TikTok star with a global following'.
Her daughter’s reaction to Whelan’s presence at SETU made McCormick realize how strong influencers' holds are on younger generations.
McCormick explained that this initially led to the creation of a summer program for teenagers interested in learning how to become social media influencers.
The program invited TikTok stars and media theorists to teach students how to build their personal brand.
After that, McCormick said 'the degree was not a hard sell'.
“We knew there was a space and need for this, we just needed to develop the course into a bachelor’s degree and get it ratified,” she added.
Experts have pointed out that the demand among young people for professions outside the tradition 9-to-5 has grown since the pandemic.
“Now, more than ever, everyone wants to maintain a semblance of control over their lives. And an influencer career promises an independent entrepreneurial career,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, a professor of communications at Cornell University. “Everybody wants to work remotely. Everyone wants to set their own schedule.”
Next year, SETU will enrol 40 students in the course's inaugural class, but McCormick isn’t yet sure how many will apply.
If the excessive applications to the summer programs is any indication, she said, they might have to turn a lot of hopeful influencers away.