Continuation…

On the other hand, in an interview with the Head of department (HOD), Prof. Joseph Wogu, he urged students to be calm, assuring guidance, adequate staffing and sufficient lecturing resources on the new development.

He pointed out that “the new undergraduate program was approved by the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) in 2022, which is Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards for the Nigeria University System (CCMAS), started effectively in 2023 and its document is expected to guide institutions in Nigeria, in the design of curricula for education program. Although UNN did not begin immediately due to inadequate facilities.”

Prof. Wogu further explained that according to CCMAS, mass communication will be a faculty, comprising 8 departments, of which provisions will be made for their curricula. He said that presently, some schools have already started some with 3 while some with 4 departments for management issues. The department however, has decided to start with 5 departments as approved by the school in order to begin gradually for management purposes.

The HOD said that “advertising, public relations, broadcasting, journalism and media studies and communication department studies are the five departments. But even at that, mass communication is not going to be faced out immediately as the new curriculum will commence with the present first year. It’s not going to affect the 2nd year and above.”

Even though the faculty building is yet to be completed, the HOD assured that everything is in progress. He explained that for the meantime, these five courses will be studied as programmes, before they would become departments, under the faculty of ‘communication and media studies’
He noted that the current 100 level students would be graduating as Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) instead of Bachelor of Arts (B.A). The professor urged the students to adjust to the new development as it very important.

By Moses Okanya