Marketing bids for academic recognition

If the government is to meet its 50 per cent target for participation in higher education, it will have to ensure that spin-doctoring is taken more seriously, according to Dale Littler, head of the Manchester School of Management.

Speaking at an awards lunch on Monday, Professor Littler, chair of the research committee at the Academy of Marketing, said marketing was underfunded and undervalued in British universities.

The Academy of Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Marketing are to set up a research forum of practitioners and academics and will launch an annual awards ceremony.