Communication with the target public and the promotion of products and services in recent years have transformed from opportunity to necessity. This refers to the for-profit and non-profit sector of the economy. Digitization and popularization of social media, the need for publicity and reach to end users and consumers, and monitoring of competition are becoming the primary challenges of strategic communication. Emphasizing certain elements of business in a new and innovative way enables attracting public attention and achieving wider publicity. The tool of public relations, the so-called promotional joke, pseudoevent or PR stunt. New media, and especially platforms for social networking, give such content a great reach, significant popularity, but perhaps the most important thing - a great return on investment. This trend does not bypass higher education either. A review of the research found that elements of pseudoevents are already used in the communication of world-famous higher education systems, and all are based on collective and team activities and joint creation of content that is shared and becomes part of media reporting. The aim of this paper is to examine the public perception related to selected pseudo-events in Croatian private higher education. The research is based on a sample of targeted publics of private higher education institutions in Croatia and an examination of the perception of the content and messages of pseudo-events that promote higher education institutions. The paper uses a double methodological approach in order to achieve the set goal. The method of content analysis examined publicly available media content on selected private higher education institutions and conclusions were drawn on the focus of media publication, value orientation towards pseudo-events and towards higher education institutions. The Q method was used to examine the perception of the target public regarding the promotional activities of higher education in Croatia, specifically selected pseudo-events at their higher education institution. Private higher education in Croatia is characterized by high competitiveness. Related to this is the need to select adequate communication activities. The contribution of this paper is in the exploratory approach to the phenomenon of pseudo-events in higher education in Croatia and the detection of promotional elements of selected higher education institutions.