Have a look at Why PR students love blogs at Josh Hallett’s hyku blog. My thought would be that all students should love blogs – but only very few do (and I’m reluctant to make it a compulsory assignment as that seems to defeat the voluntary, grassroots quality of a genuine blog.)
Note in particular this from Stuart Bruce’s comment on the above discussion. (Stuart takes some of my students on short-term placements, and he has at least one working on a client blog at present.) Here’s what he expects from students seeking work placements:
If a student hasn’t "given something back" then we won’t consider them. The pressure groups and politics might be contreversial with some but I’m still far more impressed by a student who has volunteered for something I disagree with than one who can’t be bothered to "give something back".
In short, he’s looking for passion and commitment. And a blog is a good way to demonstrate this.
PR Studies 
http://youngie.prblogs.org/?p=26
Several bloggers have been writing about whether PR students should write blogs, so I thought I’d throw my two cents in.
I’m a recently graduated PR student, and also a recent addition to the blogosphere. I wish that I’d started blogging earlie…
Good points, Richard. Coming from a non-profit background myself, and having always worked with volunteers in some way, I can definately agree with the desire to find people that commit to a cause or purpose. Stuart’s desire to hire people with passion rings true with me.
As for the compulsory assignment of blogging, I chose that route as the only way I could assure that students were at least experiencing the medium. Experiential learning has its place, but I agree that it does not always accomplish the same thing for each student.
To add to Robert’s comment about non-profits. It’s impossible to over emphasise the importance of passion and commitment. If someone can’t be passionate and actually DO something about an issue they care about then what hope is there that they can summon up enough enthusiasm to help manage the reputation of a commercial client?
PR students should be exposed to this and make their own decisions about whether to enter the conversation. Quite frankly, the ability to trade thoughts with some leaders in the PR industry should be whole-heartedly jumped on by students. I’ve talked to one of our local PR schools at starting a student blog project like Robert French’s and there seems to be some interest.
As one of a handful of Canadian PR bloggers, I have been contacted by two students through my blog. I sure hope that number grows throughout 2006, or it will be safe to say that our schools here will be graduating a bunch of publicists instead of communicators.