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HOLLAND
COLLEGE • October 20, 2001
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stalls UPEI deal Matt Draper Surveyor Staff An attempt by Holland College and UPEI to provide a new degree program in journalism for the Atlantic provinces is on hold pending a final decision by the Maritime Provincial Higher Education Commission. Holland College now offers a diploma in newspaper reporting. In the joint progam, UPEI would offer a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism degree. Anne Furlong of UPEI's english department, and co-ordinator of the proposal, said the program would "offer an expanded preparation for people who want to get into journalism." Furlong said she has "every confidence (the program) will get started." Students would go to UPEI for one year, then go through the two years Holland College requires for the diploma and then study one more year at UPEI. The student must take 20 university level courses. Deviations from this outline can be made but a student must take at least five courses of study at the university after the Holland College diploma is earned. A proposal was sent to MPHEC outlining the program, which the commission then sent on to other universities to give them a chance to raise any objections. "When a new program is proposed, the commission seeks feedback from other universities in the area," said Furlong. The feedback was then returned and the Atlantic Association of Universities-MPHEC Academic Advisory Committee is now conducting an in-depth review of the program. The MPHEC will meet again in November to discuss the proposal. University of King's College and St. Thomas University, which offers its own joint journalism program with New Brunswick Community College, both expressed concerns to the commission about having another journalism degree program in the Atlantic provinces. Stephen Kimber, director of the journalism school at King's, said he has concerns about having another journalism program in the Atlantic provinces. "I think, essentially, our biggest concern is whether there's room in this region for three programs teaching journalism at a university level," said Kimber. "The reason I say that is that journalism is expensive to teach in that there's a lot of technology and equipment that goes into it and you have to have numbers in order to justify that. "Now, we, I think, may have expressed mild concern when St. Thomas started its program. But I think, in retrospect, we should have been more out front in those concerns because they're the same kind of concerns. I mean, we're a small region. I'm not sure that three schools of journalism make good sense." Kimber said he's also concerned about the joining of a community college and a university. He said he didn't think the pairing system is working in the NBCC case. "We get students applying to us now to transfer into our program who started out in the Woodstock program and weren't satisfied," said Kimber. Kimber also questioned whether the practical and professional sides of journalism should be taught separately. "I think there's also a guestion of `What is the technical side and what's the professional side and should those be separated out in anyway?'" he said. "So I'm not sure how much of that really applies in the case of UPEI or not, but certainly those were the kinds of concerns that we had." In a story written by King's student Jennifer Vardy, Kimber expressed his preference in keeping journalism a strictly university learning experience. "The thing about using community colleges to teach the journalism component: one of the things it does is sort of ghettoizes journalism," Kimber is quoted as saying. "Is journalism not a university persuit?" Vardy's story can be found at http:journalism.ukings.ns.ca/kjr/2001-2002/jvardy.htm. Holland College Journalism learning manager Wayne Young mentioned the benefits of the proposed uniting of his school and UPEI. "I think an advantage to the student would be the option of adding a university degree to their college diploma in journalism," said Young. "Certainly they can do that now but it involves four years of university and two years of college, so essentially they can do in four years what would have taken them six." Young said another bonus to the student would be the variety of subjects learned, thereby ensuring a wider range of competence the student will bring to the job site. "We give them the practical now: ÔHere it is, go do it'. The university credits should give them a little more theory. That two years and those 20 credits should just give you a stronger candidate at the end of the day." |
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