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This study aims to test Singer’s suggestion that ‘over the next 20 years meat could follow smoking into disrepute” using the findings of the recent literature on meat consumption, education and smoking and data from consumers in Switzerland in 1990–2017.

We hypothesise that meat consumption in developed countries has increasingly shifted to people with less education, as has been observed for smoking in previous studies. Using trend analysis by regressions, we describe the consumption dynamics of nine sorts of meat in Switzerland and estimate meat consumption trends for populations with and without university education separately.

Our results partly confirm the hypothesis. Less educated households consume more non-fish meat per person than households with at least one member educating or having finished education at university. For most categories of meat, the relative decline in consumption has been significantly higher for households in which at least one person holds a university education.

Our study contributes to the studies on sociology of meat eating and suggests paying more attention to risks related to meat consumption and to awareness of the population about these risks.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0335

This study examines the role of values, social causes, PR ethics and sustainability in public relations (PR) curricula in a European country. PR students are asked about the value of learning imponderabilia versus technical skills needed in the PR industry.

The method used for this study is a quantitative online survey among PR students from six public universities with established PR programs. The study is another part of a long-term project about PR education, students' job prospects, the usefulness of PR studies at work and the role of values and technical skills in PR curricula.

This study shows that the PR students believe that their profession should include broader social issues, like equality, ethics, activism and ESG (ecological, social and governance). Most students report that their curricula cover ethics, sustainability and social responsibility and that these subjects would be useful in their future careers.

Even though the study was conducted in one European country, it may be interesting to scholars and practitioners elsewhere and may be adopted and replicated.

Identifying PR students' needs, expectations and attitudes towards the PR industry and understanding the worldviews of new graduates, with their commitment to social causes and activism, should be helpful to their teachers and instructors, future employers or clients in terms of faster and more efficient onboarding.

A better understanding of the current requirements for graduates of PR studies should help them find enough opportunities in the job market and improve the organizational communication of their future employers.

Measuring PR students' opinions on their educational experience, the role of professional skills and socially conscious, ethically oriented classes can contribute to better formulation of PR curricula and may be useful for the PR industry and academia in other countries.