The University of Regina’s journalism school is temporarily suspending admissions for 2023 for what they call a major revamp to the j-school to meet the changes of legacy media and address the student and professor shortage.
Classes will continue as usual for students who are already enrolled in the bachelors or masters program but not for those looking to apply into the school.
Third year j-school student Amir Said said, “It was pretty disappointing, honestly. I have friends in the pre-j programs — I know they were upset. It’s kind of limited my classes for next semester; I have classmates who are really affected by this.”
He said that he has the same professors as the last semester and that to him shows a shortage of instructors, “they said they couldn’t find competent instructors for upcoming classes and so that’s pretty apparent.”
Said said that he feels there is a lack of communication and students don’t have answers. “I have one classmate and she’s in the master’s program and she doesn’t know if she’s able to continue next semester because of this or next year because of this. I would have appreciated more communication. I know my classmates would have as well.”
“I have got people telling me what their plans might have to be in the future because there’s the uncertainty and lack of communication that’s made it hard to know what the future holds.”
Shannon Dea, dean U of R faculty of arts, said that the suspension could affect up to nine pre-journalism students at the U of R but she says the faculty is providing one-on-one support to these individuals connecting them with other course options and universities in the meantime.
The suspension was also motivated by a report received by faculty and industry experts in 2018-2019. The report recommended the program move more into digital journalism, communications and indigenous journalism.
Dea said the school wasn’t in the position to make the changes at that time due to staffing and the pandemic, but this year the faculty decided it was time to implement the advice.
“Its the only j-school in the province and for many decades the best in the west, so that is exactly why we have to make sure that the school is strong and resilient and up to date and sustainable. We owe it to the people of Saskatchewan to have journalism training right here in the province so we can have Saskatchewan journalists telling our stories in the right way.”
Dea said the revamp will also include making the program more flexible for those looking to study part time or have external responsibilities like work or a family. This would mean the program would span over four years instead of two.
“We want to make the program much more flexible and accessible rather than kind of a compressed two-year bootcamp, making it a program that threads through all four years of study that’s accessible to a wide range of students,” Dea said.
Dea said along with the expert recommendations, the changes to the school should come from a collaboration effort from the journalism faculty, students, alumni and industry partners.
She said she would like to see students be able to pursue courses part time and consider double majors between journalism and something else, making the degree sufficiently flexible that there’s lots of different pathways for students.
“I also want the students to be well-prepared for the media landscape of today and that means producing street-ready digital journalists and also journalists who may have some capacity in strategic communications.”
Said said that he is concerned about the reputation of the program and the school going forward, “if I want to seek work, what people’s impressions might be of the class of 2024 School of Journalism.”
He added that the school citing technology as one of the reasons for halting admissions according to him sounds like a ‘flimsy excuse.’
“We’ve been in the digital age for 40 years now or something since 1980s. We have plenty of technology as a major aspect of the program,” Said said.
“So when I hear about the digital age and adapting to that, it just has me a bit confused personally that it feels and honestly some of the excuses.”
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