Earliest Days

The annual report for the journalism advisory committee, for the 1976-7 year, said journalism at City University had become established, and was now poised to move forward.

Tom Welsh, Director of Journalism Studies, presenting the report in November 1977, said the university’s Centre for Arts and Related Studies began in October 1976 to offer a postgraduate, pre-entry course in journalism. It accepted 13 students from 120 applicants.

They were offered a course that contained a strong practical element. In practical journalism they attended courts, council meetings, and parliamentary debates, and wrote reports that were examined by working journalists or by an ex-journalist tutor. The students accompanied local reporters on their police calls. They studied shorthand with Harry Butler, the NCTJ’s shorthand consultant.

They also studied Law for Journalists; Public Administration; History of the Press; and the Structure of the Press, taught by Jeremy Tunstall, professor of Sociology at the university.

An important part of the course was the “specialisms”. The aim of the course was stated to be to help students to become competent journalists, and to help particularly those wishing to specialise in science, economics and industry, industrial relations, and politics and international relations.

The course received a practical welcome from the profession. Three students were supported by £1,000 grants from The Times, the Sun, and Reuters – help which Mr Welsh was glad to report was being continued this year (1977). Journalists of various types and all levels of eminence were keen to help. In particular, local editors and their staffs allowed students to accompany reporters on their regular calls, and editors of newspapers or radio stations provided “attachments” for all the students both at Christmas and Easter. The centre was most grateful for this help.

A group of distinguished journalists had agreed to serve on the advisory committee. The National Council for the Training of Journalists was helpful in many ways, and particularly in the accreditation of the course. The Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board took a keen interest in the centre’s work, and had shown itself ready to look at requests for financial aid from the university.

In 1977 the Royal Commission on the Press reported, and said: “We very much welcome the developmet of courses in journalism for graduates, such as those at University College, Cardiff, and the City University. We believe that provision of this kind may have an important part to play in the training of entrants to journalism and in advanced education for trained journalists.”

The centre was delighted that Tom Hopkinson, formerly Director of Journalism Studies at University college, Cardiff, and Don Rowlands, Director of Editorial Studies at the Thomson Foundation, Cardiff, accepted invitations to become external examiners.

At a last stage in the course the centre had asked a selection of provincial and local editors about job vacancies, and was told of 40 vacancies for which its students would appear to be suitable. Ten took jobs in newspapers, two in magazines, and one as a book researcher. There was no doubt that all could have obtained jobs in newspapers had they wished to do so.

Here, in alphabetical order, was where the students found jobs: Sarah Bayliss, South London Press; Terry Dignan, Morning Telegraph, Sheffield; Nigel Dudley, Middle East Economic Digest, London; Steve Howell, Redbridge Guardian, Walthamstow; Peter Kendall, South Wales Evening Post, Swansea; Susan Landau, Hornsey Journal, London; Jacky Law, Sutton Herald, Surrey; Mark Newham, Offshore Engineer, London; Fran Robinson, Exeter Weekly News; John Slattery, Lincolnsire Echo, Lincoln; Patrick Smith, book research for author Francis Hitching; Steve Williams, Hastings Observer; Robin Wills, Northants Chronicle.

All 13 students completed the course satisfactorily.

1977-8 Postgraduate Course

The centre had received 230 applications for the 1977-8 course, and accepted 20 students. The successful candidates had degrees in a wide range of subjects, including American Studies, Applied Physics, Chinese Studies, Economics, English Literature, Industrial Chemistry, Languages, Politics, Psychology, and Sociology. They were selected by panels all of which included a representative of either the NCTJ or the PPITB, and all appeared to show a keen commitment to a career in journalism.

An encouraging development had been the appearance of two sponsored students on the course, supported by Reuters and the Irish Independent. At one time there was concern that choice of students would be restricted by shortage of bursaries, and that several students would have to support themselves. In the event, all UK students who did not receive support from the industry obtained it from public funds, thanks to the helpful attitude of the Department of Education and Science, the Scottish Education Department, and the Northern Ireland Department of Education. Another encouraging development was that the Training Services Agency had promised it would consider sponsorship of the course in 1978-9.

Mr Welsh said he had already mentioned the bursaries provided by The Times, The Sun, and Reuters. He continued: “May I ask that other newspaper organisations will consider similar assistance. In a year less fortunate than the present one, such bursaries will make all the difference between a talented young person getting on the course or perhaps being lost to journalism entirely.”

The syllabus was much the same as the previous year, but in accordance with the view expressed so strongly by the advisory committee typing instruction had been made available and students were expected to spend an hour a day practising – at least, during the early stages. The students were tested, and there was a target – 40 words a minute.

Arts criticism had been added to the centre’s specialisms.

A welcome addition to the staff was Henry Clother, former industrial reporter and education correspondent of the Sun. His arrival had enabled the centre to look again at the teaching of industrial relations, a topic to which the Royal Commission attached considerable importance. The subject was already being taught by Sid Kessler, the university’s Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations who, committee members would remember, was called in to act as independent chairman of the arbitration committee attempting to deal with the Financial Times’s problems during the summer. The subject would now be taught by Mr Kessler and Mr Clother in tandem, and it was believed that from the experiment the centre would learn a good deal about the teaching of specialisms in general – an area of journalism education which was in its infancy in this country.

1978-9 Postgraduate Course

Mr Welsh said that judging from the keen demand by editors for the centre’s students during the summer, the centre had no doubt that it should increase the numbers still further, and it proposed to take 30 students in 1978-9,

“We believe the industry is becoming aware that talented, enthusiastic young people capable of doing the important job of reporting are now coming on to the job market not at 17 or 18 but at 21 or 22.”

Senior Work

Though the centre considered its pre-entry work to be progressing satisfactorily, this work could not be the whole story, or indeed the main story. “We see the provision of such training for graduates as only one of our roles. Perhaps more important is the provision of facilities for research and for post experience instruction. In these areas little progress has yet been made, but there is clearly enormous potential.”

Research

Candidates with first degrees of adequate standard could be accepted by the university for studies  leading to the MPhil degree. If the work proved of sufficiently high standard, it might be converted to PhD work. The centre had registered or was in the process of registering two such students, and Mr Welsh was glad to report that both were former journalists.

The centre was particularly keen to encourage research into the history of the press, the design of newspapers, the effect of technological changes on the work of the journalist, and the education and training of journalists. It would be glad to receive, from the industry, both suggestions for other areas of research work and financial assistance to enable such work to go forward.

The centre was also keen to encourage academic work by senior journalists who might not meet the entry requirements for higher degrees. Such journalists might apply to register in the centre, and could consult the academic staff about their work, or be supervised by them. Working space could be provided for such senior journalists in the centre, and they would have the use of the university library. They were encouraged to work with the postgraduate students, and to link with the rest of the work of the centre as closely as possible. The centre was at that time involved in discussions with two such senior journalists.

Other post-experience work

The provision of courses for senior journalists must clearly be an important part of the centre’s work. The centre was grateful for the suggestions of the advisory committee on subjects for such courses. Memebrs would remember that the subject most favoured was Reporting the EEC, and the centre would in fact be holding its first course on that them in Easter 1978.

The centre had asked for the blessing of the NCTJ on this course; ideally the centre would like to run courses that were jointly sponsored by the two organisations. It weemed unlikely that the industry would ever provide the residential traing college about which so much discussion had taken place for so many years. The City University, however, could provide inexpensive student accommodation for course at its halls of residence at a cost, currently of £4.50 a night – and this within a mile or two of Fleet Street and major national news sources.

The centre noted the Royal Commission’s view that there was a need for more fellowships for senior journalists at universities, and it believed such fellowships at The City University might be particularly suitable for editors of professional and trade journals specialisng in science and technology.

Mr Welsh was glad to report that the centre’s first “occasional student” had now been registered. Experienced journalists who had degrees but who did not wish to embark on research were welcome to register at the centre, provided an acceptable course of studies could be agreed. Such a course normally included individual supervision of agreed project work and attendance at relevant lectures and seminars provided primarily for students attending diploma courses and post-experience courses.

In the case of the centre’s current student, who would be attending until Christmas, the individual tution was being given by brian Jones, deputy editor of the Guardian, who was a valued visiting lecturer with the postgraduate course the previous year.  (“His impending departure from London will be a considerable loss.”) The student was attending the postgraduate lectures on Law for Journalists and also the lectures on the History of the Press, which were given by three distinguished visiting lecturers – Dr Alan Lee, Dr Michael Palmer, and Mr Anthony Smith. The student was also able to link with any of the other activities of the university, an university which was keenly concerned with the media in all its aspects. members of the advisory committee would see that the centre was able to provide a rewarding experience for such a visitor, particulalry if he came from another country. “I have no doubt,” said Mr Welsh, “that this kind of activity will be a greatly increasing part of our work in years to come, and I very much welcome this development.”

How fast the centre’s progress would be must depend, of course, on a number of factors, but the principal one was staffing. Running a postgraduate, pre-entry course that was really useful in training terms was enormously expensive in lecturers’ time, energy, and initiative. The industry benefited from this work if it was properly done. Any help, therefore, either from individual newspapers or the industries’ institutions in financing additional staff must be welcomed. “Perhaps one day we shall see a chair of journalism financed by a wellwisher, and such a development could only be to the great benefit of an industry which has tended to act first and think afterwards – or not at all.”

Mr Welsh concluded by thanking the members of the advisory committee; David Jenkins, head of the centre, for his continuing support; and Mary Harris, course administrator, and Donna Fowler, the centre’s secretarial assistant, for their hard work during an energetic first year.