Earliest Days

How a predominantly vocational qualification of journalism was integrated into the work of the University

Professor Allan P.O. Williams gives an account of the early days of journalism at City in his Recent history of City University London, 1978-2008

The birth of Journalism at City in 1976 was a prime example of the emerging University’s strategy of providing ‘professional’ education. The introduction of Journalism Studies into the University followed a sequence of events typical of academic innovation. An individual inside or outside the University with links to an industrial sector puts forward a proposal to an individual (e.g. Vice-Chancellor or Academic Registrar) or decision making committee (e.g. Board of Studies); appropriate consultations are initiated, often through a working party consisting of interested parties within the University; if sufficient support is obtained then proposals are fed through formal academic and resource channels to ensure that proper academic and financial criteria have been considered.

In this case the trigger appears to have been a memorandum dated January 1975 from Terry Page (Communications Consultant at the University and a member of the National Union of Journalists) to the Vice-Chancellor, Edward Parkes. Page put forward strong arguments for a postgraduate diploma in journalism studies, including the fact that the only other university in the UK to have entered this field was Cardiff, which could only cater for 20 of their 300 applications. Parkes set up a working party thatbrought together Jeremy Tunstall (Professor of Sociology at the University and a consultant for the Royal Commission on the Press which was set-up by the Prime Minister in 1974), David Jenkins (Director of General Studies) and Page. In November 1975 an enlarged working party under David Jenkins started to work on the details of the proposed qualification. This went to Courses Committee in April 1976 and thence to the May meeting of Senate. The first intake of students took place in October of that year, and Tom Welsh was appointed as the first head of journalism at City.

David Jenkins

Integrating a predominantly vocational qualification into the University was a challenging task. With the support of key individuals (e.g. Jeremy Tunstall on the academic side and David Jenkins on the managerial side), Tom Welsh spent two years encouraging Journalism to take root within the University. His annual reports to the Journalism advisory committee show the hard work that went into getting the initial qualification accepted by the industry (e.g. accreditation by the National Council for the Training of Journalists), and obtaining sponsorship/funding for students. Contributions toward the latter came from The Times, the Sun, Reuters, the Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board, the Irish Independent, and the Department of Education and Science.