LAHORE, Sept 1: Will the proposed ‘upgradation’ of the Punjab University Mass Communication Department help produce graduates to be welcomed by print and electronic media?

The answer is in the negative if one talks to senior journalists and former and present students of the department. They say any effort (like this) will bear fruit only after motivating teachers and improving their skills.

The university has decided in principle to make the department an ‘Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication’ having departments of mass communication and research; development journalism and communication; and electronic media. Each department will be headed by a chairman.

The print media is by far the largest market for journalism graduates but stuff produced by the Department of Mass Communication is generally considered unfit for both the print and electronic media.

Editors of national newspapers say that a mass communication degree holder rarely knows the basics of the trade.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Majid Nizami, the chief editor of daily Nawa-i-Waqt and The Nation, said he believed in the “like teacher like student” philosophy. He said unless the teaching skills of the existing faculty were not improved, there was a little hope of productive graduates coming out of the university.

He said the department offered no practical training to students. As a result, brilliant students opt for the other services whereas the remaining stuff go to newspapers, he said, adding there was a need to change the syllabi and methodology of teaching to produce quality journalists.

Mujibur Rehman Shami, the chief editor of daily Pakistan, said students should be given opportunities for compulsory internship with newspapers. He said he had asked the department to introduce an entry test and select only those who had a knack for journalism.

Mass Communication department chairman Dr Shafiq Jullandhry said that 80 per cent passouts got jobs in government and semi-government departments and the rest went to newspapers. His claim was, however, contradicted by a former student who had just passed out. “Only three of my 70 session mates got jobs,” he said.

The student said that the Punjab University mass communication degree had become a ‘slur’ as newspaper managements preferred to hire masters in other disciplines. The public sector, including TV and Radio, had rare opportunities for journalism graduates, he added.

About students’ writing skills, the department chairman admitted that no such training had been imparted to them in the past. “But now a newspaper is being launched by the department to improve their skills.”

Mr Jullandhry said he was against the teachers’ practice of teaching outside the campus. “There should be a ban on such teachers,” Mr Jullandhry said.

He said that the department had also set up a radio station to provide an opportunity to students to acquaint themselves with the electronic media. He said that the Unesco-funded programme would start functioning within a few months.

UPGRADATION: The proposed restructuring which is yet to be notified by the vice-chancellor is not a fresh effort on the part of the department and the PU administration to “improve syllabi and produce better graduates.”