Delhi School of Journalism is reported to introduce short-term courses soon, but the students remain skeptical about the new venture due to the history of the institute’s provisions.
As per several sources, the Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) has ventured into the arena of offering short-term journalism courses, starting from the upcoming academic year. The reports of the decision were first shared on 12th January 2019, but the decision was in tandem with the provisions of the ordinance under which the school was established.
According to Ordinance XX (N), there are ten primary objectives of the concerned journalism school, including the identification and nurture of aspiring journalists, enrichment of the discipline through trans-disciplinary modules, offering of ‘Add-on’ courses on foreign and regional languages, and the availability of short-term courses for working journalists and university students. When the courses begin, then the community of working journalists can choose to improve and enhance their media and communication skills by signing up.
Started in 2017 with a batch of 120 students, DSJ now has a total of 218 students across two batches. Since its inception, DSJ has been a part of numerous controversies and protest demonstrations with respect to the educational amenities provided to the students. For instance, the students sat on a hunger strike for numerous days in September, 2018. They then decided to take the demonstrations to the Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu,who inaugurated the institute in 2017. Their demands have been inclusive of housing facilities, infrastructure, library accessibility et al.
Whether the move to delve into a new venture is productive remains unclear for some because numerous objectives of the ordinance have not been fulfilled during DSJ’s functioning. Anoushka Sharma, a second-year student at the institute, remains skeptical about the endeavor. She said, “I just feel that starting short term courses while not having proper infrastructure for the ongoing course is an issue. Since the past eight months, the students of DSJ have been protesting for better facilities. This includes the basic facilities like a media lab for a journalism course given the fee-structure, which is considerably demanding.”
Dr. Manasvini M Yogi, Officer on Special Duty of DSJ, said that the courses are not available at present, but are in pipeline. Her statement to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) is as follows: “Since we are a new college and have just started our second batch, things are bound to take some time. But we are planning to start the short-term courses by 2020 latest, and if we can, we will start the courses from 2019.” When asked about digital journalism courses, the OSD stated to IANS- “We will have to see about all that. Too early to talk about the kind of courses we will start. But a course in digital journalism will be there and since these would be for working journalists, the classes may be held on weekends.”
Feature Image Credits: Sandeep Samal and Srivedant Kar for DU Beat.
Anushree Joshi