Public relations at a university shape messages on the basis of which potential students assess whether it is worth spending the most intense formative years of their lives at a particular university. Public relations impact the target group - students - by the use of cognitive and affective dimensions of a brand, by positive image and its summarizing in conveyed messages. These messages reflect the identity of a university and its mission, promote values and particular benefits as well as added value gained upon the graduation, promote the image of the university and set forth its specific character and comparative advantages over the competition. The determinants for the research translated for the purpose of this thesis were set on the basis of relevant literature; their aim was to determine and perform critical analysis of the perception of pubic relations’ influence on brand and image of a university from the perspective of student population, while the specific goal of the research was to compare the similarities and differences on the example of the Catholic University of Croatia and Catholic University in Ružomberok. The participants in the research were the students of communication sciences, psychology and nursing at both universities. A questionnaire was created for the purposes of this thesis concerning public relations, image, brand and loyalty and their interrelations. The results of the research have shown that the perception of public relations, university brand awareness and university image are significant preconditions for generating loyalty in student population. Moreover, it was established that university brand awareness is significantly linked with the image of the university. The results have also shown that positive emotions towards university community, positive brand judgment and resonance enable the anticipation of greater university brand awareness. This study also analyses the motives for enrolling the university as well as the characteristics i.e. six-dimension University Brand Personality Scale (UBPS). The UBPS comprises prestige, sincerity, appeal, lively, conscientiousness, and cosmopolitan dimensions. The results have shown that there is no major difference between the motives for studying at the Catholic University of Croatia and Catholic University in Ružomberok, and that the participants stated interest in study, excellent conditions for studying and university image as significant motives to enroll a particular study program. The analysis of data on brand personality has shown that the participants achieved relatively high results in all researched categories. Among all brand personality categories, the participants gave the highest ranking to sincerity. When assessing the characteristics of particular categories, the participants awarded the highest ratings to characteristic “friendly”, while the lowest ratings were given to characteristics “leading” and “athletic”. On the basis of conducted research, a conclusion could be made that public relations at the universities are a tool, means and managing function participating in the creation of university brand and image creation, and it can serve as means to foster loyalty of students to the university. The mentioned indicators may contribute not only to the creation of communication strategy for students but also to the development of additional investment into the image of the university. This is the first thesis dealing with this subject on Catholic universities in Croatia and Slovakia the result of which may be used for similar or related researches in the field of communication sciences and public relations, as well as the basis for the creation of communication and marketing strategies on the universities.