Makerere University journalism department to start new courses

Amidst plans to review the curriculum, Makerere University’s department of Journalism and Communication is set to start a new masters course in development and strategic communication. There will also be a new course at the bachelors’ level. This means that the current masters programme of journalism and communication will be disaggregated to focus on journalism and multi media.

The next course will be on development and strategic communication. The current bachelor’s programme, after the curriculum review, will also be split into two courses; Bachelors in Journalism and Bachelors in Communication.

The new courses will be started with support from the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED). The team from NORHED was in the country a couple of weeks ago, discussing the initiation of the five-year project.

The main goal of NORHED is to enhance higher education and research capacities in low and middle-income countries, as a means to improve sustainable development and reduce poverty. If the proposal, which is being fronted by Dr. William Tayeebwa, the department’s coordinator of projects, goes through, NORHED will also support lecturers in the department to go for further studies in Oslo University and Akershus University College, Norway.

The journalism department is the oldest of its kind in the Eastern Africa Region, but out of its 16 established staff members, only three hold doctorates. A doctorate is the minimum requirement for a lecturer at Makerere University.

However, four of those without doctorates are already enrolled for further studies. To support institutional development in the school of journalism and communication, the department is planning to host, under the NORHED project, a Norwegian professor for at least three years. Under the same project, the department is set to develop a scholarship scheme targeting nationals from Southern Sudan.

Meanwhile, Makerere, recently, in a ceremony at the university, marked 25 years of collaboration with the University of Bergen. The Makerere-Bergen collaboration is historical, dating back to 1998; when Prof. Endre Lillethun first visited Makerere University.

The collaboration was formalised by the signing of a 15-year Framework Agreement in November 1999. The agreement is thelongest single north-south institutional memorandum of understanding that Makerere University has ever signed.

The University of Bergen has been greatly supporting Makerere University’s core mission of teaching and learning, advancement of research and knowledge transfer.