First set of UniFiji journalists to graduate in April - Professor Shameem

Good news as the first set of journalism students at the University of Fiji will graduate in April this year, and all of them are already employed.

UniFiji Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shaista Shameem says the practitioners’ syllabus in the Journalism and Media Studies Programme was complemented by media and communication theory courses.

Professor Shameem says the combination of theory and practice, referred to as ‘Praxis,’ made the programme both special and unique.

She says another draw card was the fact that students were engaged in newsrooms as interns from the first year, leading to confident competence in the craft of journalism by the time they graduated.

Professor Shameem adds another key factor in the programme’s success was the hands-on experience students gained by working as interns in newsrooms from their first year.

Professor Shameem also highlighted that students were also exposed to radio reporting through the University’s Vox internet radio facility, which which was given an award as one of the top 10 college radios of the world.

The Vice-Chancellor also highlighted that students are also regularly exposed to leading news and feature programmes on established media platforms such as BBC and CNN, with students encouraged to develop their journalistic uniqueness.

She says in addition students learnt the art of documentary filmmaking as well as design and sub-editing skills all taught by veteran journalists in Fiji and overseas.

Professor Shameem says leading journalists in Fiji lecture in the programme to ensure a realistic learning focus.

Professor Shameem says the human values foundation provided in all the disciplines at UniFiji allowed journalism students to develop their own style within a public good framework.

She adds they learnt to report the news to the public without fear of favour, which was an essential aptitude often overlooked but was required in journalistic reporting in Fiji.

The University is registering students for its Journalism and Media Studies Programme at the Saweni and Samabula campuses.