Mass Communication has now been unbundled by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). NBTE is administrative and academic Board that oversees vocational, technical and colleges of education in Nigeria.
Dr. Jimoh Olorede of the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, in a chat with newsmen stated that unbundling of Mass Communication means that certificates would no longer be awarded to graduates of the programme as Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mass Communication.
In adherence to the global best practices in technical education, especially with a view to widening career prospects of graduates, building skillful specialists, and training employable manpower, the NBTE led by the Executive Secretary, Professor Idris Mohammed Bugaje, in July 2022, organised a Workshop held at Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Imo State, with participants from 18 institutions, Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), a professional body that regulates and controls advertising in Nigeria, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which is an agency of the United Nations that supports and administers programmes to aid quality education and skill building.
Consequently, five new programmes (Departments) namely Print Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, Advertising, Public Relations, and Film and Multimedia were proposed.
However, after further deliberations, the proposed five programmes were streamlined into three which include: Strategic Communication and Media Studies; Journalism and Media Studies; and Film and Multimedia Production.
Following this, applicants would subsequently have to choose their courses of choice from either of these three new unbundled programmes at the point of entry.
It is no longer HND Mass Communication, which is a generalization. It’s now either HND Strategic Communication and Media Studies (SCM), which encapsulates Public Relations, Adverting, and Development Communication; or HND Journalism and Media Studies (JMS), which covers Print, Broadcast and Digital Journalism, or HND Film and Multimedia Production (FMP), as distinct areas of specialization.
The National University Commission (NUC) has also announced the unbundling of the programme in undergraduate levels into seven separate courses namely Journalism and Media Studies; Public Relations; Advertising; Broadcasting; Film and Multimedia Studies; Information and Media Studies; and Development Communication Studies.p
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