By Samson Oluga
The nascent approval of the Federal Government/Federal Ministry of Education mandating the unbundling of Mass Communication was rightly conveyed by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed to various universities. This was described as part of the government’s efforts towards repositioning and revitalizing the education(al) system in Nigeria, hence, this will equally affect other fields like Computer Science and Architecture. However, the novel idea of unbundling Mass Communication now embraced and approved by the Federal Government originally began as the brainchild of some scholarly pedagogues and astute practitioners of different areas of Mass Communication. They met for about five years to brainstorm on the need to revolutionize the teaching and practising of the different branches of Mass Communication, overhaul the extant programme curriculum and generate new and dynamic curricula for the programmes to emerge from the present Mass Communication. The review was facilitated by Bayero University Kano (BUK) and supported by McArthur Foundation. It was to prevent the students, teachers and practitioners from lagging but to be abreast of global trends or on similar academic and professional pedestals with those in other climes as far as Mass Communication is concerned.
It is axiomatic that the systemic cum systematic implementation of the nascent unbundling of Mass Communication at the Fountain University, Osogbo as well as other institutions guarantees the prospects of myriad developments that will positively impact the students, the staff, the institution, the programme(s) or the profession(s) and the society at large ceteris paribus. Firstly, the policy has a numerical advantage as seven (7) new departments will emerge, more students will be admitted, more teaching and non-teaching staff will be engaged and more infrastructural facilities will spring up or be provided. Secondly, there is the possibility of accelerated career progression that is motivational for outstanding academic staff members as the Head of Department may emerge as the Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies while some other lecturers in the Department of Mass Communication may become the Heads of Departments of Journalism, Broadcasting, Advertising, Public Relations etc. Thirdly, there will be professionalism as the newly created Departments will be producing professionals in the respective fields who will become the practitioners licensed by their professional bodies or associations. This means graduates of Journalism will be journalists working in newspaper and magazine-producing organisations. Broadcasting graduates will be the broadcasters of radio and television stations. Public Relations graduates will be the PROs of various organizations while Advertising graduates will work in advertising agencies among others, though with the possibility of interrelationship and cross-fertilisation of ideas. Fourthly, there will be universal or international similitude as the programme of the institution will be academically harmonious with those of others across the globe.
It is apparent that there will likely be some imminent challenges, impediments or encumbrances that may militate against the immediate implementation of the unbundling of Mass Communication at Fountain University, Osogbo (FUO) just as in other institutions at various levels. This is simply because even Rome was not built in a day, overnight or on a platter of gold and nothing good as often said comes easy. Basically, the number of academic staff who are presently about fifteen (15) taking Mass Communication students or courses at various levels, who may have been overstretched, will not be sufficient to kickstart the seven (7) new programmes except their number is multiplied by the number of the new programmes to have about ninety (90) or a hundred (100) academic staff members so as to overcome the personnel-based take off problem. Moreover, the present infrastructural facilities and equipment will be grossly inadequate to kickstart the seven (7) newly created programmes emanating from Mass Communication. Furthermore, there are no new curricula rolled out yet by the NUC to teach the newly approved courses, hence, students’ admission will have to be put on hold until the newly developed programme curricula that are in tandem with the courses of the newly unbundled programmes are made available to the university authorities. Eventually, there will be more graduates of the unbundled professions turned out by the various universities to chase the few existing jobs in the labour market, hence, the production of the new set of professionals will be counter-productive except more jobs in their respective new fields are created ahead of time.
One thing that can serve as a good panacea to the problems or challenges that can militate against the implementation of the Mass Communication unbundling policy is proper planning or preparation which people believe prevents or prohibits poor performance in virtually every sphere of human endeavour. So, the institution needs to plan properly to ensure a systemic cum systematic and successful implementation of the Mass Communication unbundling policy by mounting the programmes one after the other based on available resources. Primarily, the required facilities and equipment needed for the commencement of the various programmes should be provided to ensure their prompt accreditation. Also, the teaching staff as well as the non-teaching staff needed to kickstart the programmes of the new or emerging Departments should be engaged because there can’t be students or trainees without teachers or trainers. Well-developed programme curricula and instructional materials must be provided to the various institutions done by a combination of outstanding and versatile academics and practising professionals/practitioners for effective teaching and training of the students. Most importantly, suitable jobs in various fields of the newly created professions should be provided by the governments, media organisations and the creative industries across the nation so that the newly produced professionals won’t end up becoming jobless and worsening the spate of unemployment nationwide.
The immediate implementation of the policy unbundling Mass Communication, therefore, has its pros and cons discussed above as its prospects and problems just as any policy that aims at systemic transformation and systematic development. Strategic planning is therefore required so as to kickstart the unbundling of the newly created programmes gradually, probably from the least difficult/expensive to the most difficult/capital-intensive programmes to mount or start. The institution mustn't lag behind even as a private faith-based university because a similar institution is one of the few universities that have started mounting some of the unbundled programmes. It is good for the institution to map out strategies for the systematic implementation of the Mass Communication unbundling policy by first addressing and redressing the challenging factors militating against the implementation of the transformational policy. The institution can then leverage and maximize the potential benefits or prospects of the implementation of the policy in the interests of the students and staff and for the betterment of the programmes, the professions, the educational system and the contemporary society at large.
Samson Oluga
Department of Mass Communication
College of Management and Social Sciences (COMAS)
Fountain University, Osogbo (FUO)
Email: samoluga@yahoo.com
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