Out of the many arts courses and programs offered with in the country by various universities, Makerere University’s Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communication comes in uniquely as the only Arts course with a four years duration besides Bachelor of laws. This course is also named differently compared to other universities in the country which refer to it as mass communication.
Journalism and Communication students at the prestigious university study and attain such skills as audio and video editing, public relations, photography, news reporting and writing, social and behavior change communication among others within 3 years, Journalism and Communication students at MAK are then in their fourth year tasked to specialize in either journalism or communication. This way, they master in what they’ve been taught and have their interest in. Awesome, right? It is the basic reason as to why the course has a duration of 4 years.
The program produces highly skilled, well groomed, ready to act and knowledgeable young journalists, communicators and PR personnel. Journalism students at MAK get to explore and have an insight of the real journalism and communication world since they are given chance to tackle both theory and practical course units extensively putting in mind the student’s preference
Unlike in other institutions, the Journalism and Communication program provides a wide range of electives such as; languages like French, Chinese, Literature, Luganda, other electives such as Political Science, Sociology, and Psychology from which the students choose two in order to widen their understanding on different aspects of learning. The Journalism department owns a media library, two media laboratories with equipment including a radio FM, studio, cameras, tripods, computers among others which students can access to practice and perfect their skills.
“We are a manageable number since the cut off points are high so it is easy for the lecturers to teach and monitor each one of us, we access our media labs at all times and we work on projects that are fit to be aired to the public because of their quality and accuracy, ” said John Mary Kizito, a third year Journalism and Communication student.
The department is currently in the process of reviewing its Bachelors and graduate programs in a bid to respond to the changing needs of the industry. It plans to modify the current Bachelor of Journalism and Communication into a Bachelor of Public Relations and Strategic Communication and a Bachelor of Journalism and Multimedia Studies which, if approved, will start in the academic year 2018/2019.
