American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) 2024 AJHSSR Journal Page | 125 American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) e-ISSN : 2378-703X Volume-08, Issue-10, pp-125-133 www.ajhssr.com Research Paper Open Access Navigating the MBKM Landscape: UMI's Adaptive Public Relations and Rhetoric Strategies for Reputation Enhancement (2020-2023) Abd Majid 1 , Zelfia 2 Andi Muttaqin Mustari 3 , Izki Fikriani Amir 4 , Muhammad Idris 5 1,2,3,4,5 (Communication Science, Universitas Muslim Indonesia, Indonesia) ABSTRACT : This study explores the public relations and public communication strategies employed by Universitas Muslim Indonesia (UMI) in response to the challenges presented by the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program, an Indonesian higher education policy that promotes independent learning and campus autonomy. Using a descriptive qualitative approach with an exploratory case study, the researchers investigated UMI's implementation of the MBKM program over the past two years. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, focus group discussions, and analysis of policy documents and publications related to MBKM activities. The findings demonstrate that UMI's public relations and communication efforts involve the adaptive use of both internal and external communication channels to manage the university's reputation and publicity. This includes a continuous system of education-based public information dissemination through the university's website, social media, and online media. The public relations and communication strategies follow a structural and cultural approach aligned with university regulations and procedures, aiming to fulfill the institution's function as a source of information and to support its academic reputation. The study provides insights into effective reputation management strategies employed by higher education institutions navigating the changing landscape of higher education policies, such as the MBKM program in Indonesia. KEYWORDS : Navigating, Adaptive; Public Relations; Rhetoric, Publicity I.INTRODUCTION The improvement of public image and trust in a university goes hand in hand with the results of university rankings, both domestically and internationally. The achievement of institutional reputation and academic deliberation in higher education institutions is still experiencing fluctuations, in line with the challenges of the education system and the complexity of the public communication and information system (Ratnasari et al., 2018). The public's trust and confidence in higher education institutions is largely determined by ranking institutions such as Webometrics, which routinely releases and determines the best universities in Indonesia twice a year based on the level of access to the universities' websites. The assessment criteria used by Webometrics are closely related to the credibility and quantity of information displayed by universities in terms of presence (the number of website domains and subdomains), impact (the number of backlinks from external sites), openness (the number of accessible files linked to the website domain), and excellence (the number of journal articles by the university's academic community). Based on the criteria set by global ranking institutions, Indonesian universities have not yet achieved a position among the top 10 universities in Asia. The existing assessments show that the position of Indonesian universities is still lagging behind universities in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and other world-class universities. The dynamics and achievements of the reputation of universities in Indonesia, in addition to being interesting to study on an Asian scale, are also important to understand their development nationally in various regions of Indonesia. Based on the level of progress and increased competitiveness of universities in Indonesia, the advancement of universities is still concentrated on the island of Java, based on the top 10 universities ranked by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education in 2022. The problems of competitiveness, public communication and information systems, the quality of human resources, and the governance of universities in the eastern region of Indonesia are interesting topics to study in order to improve the practice of public communication systems in institutions, which greatly determines the competitiveness and reputation of universities. Conditions and academic atmosphere, as well as quality issues, are problems faced by many