GIJ to offer post-graduate programmes

The National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) has given approval to the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) to run postgraduate programmes in four courses, the Rector of the institute, Mr David Newton, has said.

The programmes are currently awaiting the green light from the National Accreditation Board to be rolled out in the 2013/2014 academic year.  

The courses to be run are Masters in Development Communication, Masters in Media Management, Masters in Journalism and Masters in Public Relations.

At the sixth congregation of the GIJ held in Accra on Saturday on the theme; “Democracy, the Media and Elections”, Mr Newton said after successfully running the degree programme under the tutelage of the University of Ghana for the past 12 years, the institute was now in a better position to implement a master’s programme to further contribute to the building of quality human resource in the field of communication.

GIJ, the nation’s premier and only state-owned communications institute, still faces serious infrastructure deficit, after 53 years of existence.

A new campus for the school at Shiashie in Accra has been under construction since the 1970s.

But the rector said the institute had secured GH¢4.9 million from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to complete a four-storey classroom block at the site.

He said the school was collaborating with several foreign universities to adopt international best practices in communications training.

 According to him, GIJ had developed a curriculum for the introduction of population and data use in journalism.

The aim of that programme, Mr Newton said, was to develop the capacity of communicators and journalists to understand the use of data as a component of the process to promote national development through evidence-based journalism. 

The school is currently reviewing its organisational structure, with the view to amending the existing legal instrument, Act 717.

That will make way for the creation of new departments, the redesignation of existing ones and eventually change the name of the institute to reflect its status as a fully fledged university.

Two hundred and ninety three students graduated with degrees and diplomas in Communication Studies.

The sixth congregation was the first time the school had graduated diploma and degree students together. Until recently, students of the degree programme were graduated together with students of the University of Ghana which issued the degree certificates.

Twelve students obtained First Class honours in the degree programme, while 69 and 64 students obtained Second Class Upper and Lower divisions, respectively. Two students obtained Third Class honours.

One hundred and thirty eight students passed in the diploma programme, out of the total number of 153 students.

Story: Justice Baidoo