By Usman Aliyu
Ilorin – Dr Mutiu Ganiyu, a lecturer at the Al-Hikma University, Ilorin, says the unbundling of Mass Communication into seven different courses would provide opportunities for scholars and professionals in the field.
Ganiyu, a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication of the university stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Ilorin.
He said the step taken by the National Universities’ Commission (NUC) was long overdue.
Ganiyu, who led students of the university on a field study to NAN office in Ilorin, said the unbundling processes had been on for some time.
“It is good that the NUC has adopted the proposal made by some scholars in the communication field,’’ he said.
He, however, noted that more work needed to be done to make the new programmes functional and achievable.
“It is a welcome development because we have been on this for quite sometimes and now the NUC has adopted it.
“Thank God that it is coming at this period of time, but I think more work needs to be done on how to make it function.
“The creation of seven departments under Mass Communication is good, but what are we doing to improve the human resource that will take care of the departments,” he said.
Ganiyu explained that there was need to look into peculiarities of each university and its ownership structure.
“We need to ask one question- will the owners of private universities be able to finance the seven departments at once,’’ he said.
He also called for involvement of professionals in training of mass communication students.
“On the overall, it is a welcome development, the implementation is good idea on paper, but we need to work more practically on the implementation and challenges of the unbundling.
“With this development, there should be more active involvement and collaboration between the professionals, that is the end users of the products, the trainers and the university itself.
“The practical aspect of it needs to be emphasis and the curriculum development; it is high time we start having the professionals equally making inputs.
“If we are training the students for them, they need to be more involved even at the training point.
“Apart from industrial training we are having for them, we need to bring our students to the field to see the reality on ground, while the professionals too should do more collaboration with the universities.
“In advanced countries, editors, producers taking courses in some universities assists the students to be well grounded or well groomed for the challenges ahead,’’ he said.
(NAN)
