The federal government, through the National Universities Commission (NUC), has unveiled the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) designed for the education and training of undergraduates wishing to obtain first degrees in the different areas of Communication and Media Studies in the Nigerian University System.
The curriculum unbundled the Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication while establishing some emerging specialisations in these fields as obtained globally.
Mass Communication was unbundled to create a distinct discipline of Communications comprising degree programmes in Advertising, Broadcasting, Development Communication Studies, Film and Multimedia, Information and Media Studies, Journalism and Media Studies, Mass Communication, Public Relations and Strategic Communication.
The government said the approved programmes would promote interface between communication and media studies, social sciences and other disciplines in order to respond to global and local needs.
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Before, all the courses were understudied under Mass Communication as either two or three units course, but now, they will be bachelor degree courses to allow undergraduates choose their preferred field of study.
Speaking briefly on the CCMAS at the unveiling ceremony by NUC on Monday, a former Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Emeritus Peter Okebukola, said the new curriculum addresses the knowledge and skill gaps in the curriculum it is replacing.
“It places assent on 100 per cent entrepreneurship, practical rather than theoretical knowledge and skills and the development of the 21st century skills in line with contemporary global best practice.
“The curriculum is to stimulate greater learning in its delivery and strategically configured to produce future-fit graduates, provide essential foundation for lifelong learning, nurture deep thinkers and problem solvers and graduates who are highly skilled in their professions and disciplines and it encourages interdependencies of disciplines,” he said.
In his remarks, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, represented by the Secretary to the Government of Federation, Boss Mustapha, applauded the foresight of unbundling Communication and Media studies and others.
He said launching the new CCMAS will help in the delivery of quality and relevant content.
He enjoined the commission to ensure wide circulation of the document to universities and other degree awarding institutions for immediate adoption and implementation.
The objectives stated in the curricula pointed that Communication and Media Studies training should develop the student’s understanding of communicative problems at the various levels of the Nigerian and global society and develop in the student the ability for objective and critical judgment and to observe, understand, analyse and synthesize socio-economic, political and environmental problems using communication and media studies methods and techniques among others.
