‘IIMC to upgrade all journalism and mass communication courses to MA degrees, phase out PG diplomas’: VC

Two years after Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) was declared deemed-to-be university, vice chancellor Pragya Paliwal Gaur spoke to Academia360 about plans to expand further with three new masters courses. The university will be welcoming their first batch of PhD students in April and is also offering part-time PhD options. She adds that in the coming session, they will be starting fellowships for working journalists, which will be grant-based to pursue their projects. Edited excerpts:

Will we be seeing more courses following your transition as a deemed-to-be university?

The first batch of MA students will be graduating next year. In the first phase we started three MA courses – MA in strategic communication, new media communication and media business studies.

Now in the coming session, we will be launching three new MA courses. One is on Health Communication, since there is great demand for specialists in the health industry and across many sectors. Second, we already have a PG diploma in Dhenakanal campus called Corporate Communication and Brand Management. We are now converting that into MA degrees and students can pursue the course in the second year. The National Education Policy is easy and student friendly as they can enter and exist as per their choice.

The other course is governance communication. This course has much scope as in the states too the government needs information officers. There are so many options in the central government and private sector as well.

What happens with the PG diploma courses running here at present?

Our plan is to convert all PG diplomas into MA degrees. Students mostly prefer the master’s degree since it is required to appear for UGC NET and also for recruitment and various government jobs.

Even in NEP, the undergraduate degrees are of two types – three years and four years. Those who will be coming after a four-year undergraduate programme will get a masters degree in one year.

Being a deemed university, it is not required to confine oneself to the masters level courses. Is IIMC looking at foraying into the undergraduate space?

To start bachelor courses, we need to have a lot of infrastructure. At present, we will be focusing on masters programmes only.

How about PhD programmes?

On January 1, we launched the PhD programme. From April 2, we started with the first batch of PhD students. We will start with the coursework as per University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation. In the first year we will be admitting 18 students and four are part-time PhD students. In the coming NET cycle we will be increasing the numbers. Regular PhD admission is on the basis of UGC NET; for part-time PhD, we conduct our own test, the result of which will be declared soon.

There was also an announcement of starting fellowships for working journalists.

During the convocation, our chancellor, the minister for information and broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw had announced the fellowship programme.

With the expansion, how has the faculty strength increased?

We are in the process of recruiting teaching and non-teaching staff. After becoming a university we need staff. The increase will be quite substantial.

How has the infrastructure expansion taken place after becoming a university?

Due to the expansion and launch of new courses, we are working to improve and enhance the infrastructure of even our other campuses. We are building more hostels, classrooms.

In the Delhi campus, a new academic block and hostel will be completed within 18 months. Students prefer residential facilities. The new hostel will be a 95-bedded one. The academic block will have state-of-the-art facilities, an auditorium, a hi-tech lab and all the best facilities.

Another addition is incubation centres and creators’ lounges. We have tied up with Wave X, which connected us with start-ups in the field of media and content. Those who don't have space can utilise these spaces to facilitate start-ups; 15 start-ups have been onboarded so far. Incubation centres have been started in all campuses. This will also be open to the IIMC alumni. Mentorship will also be provided not just from IIMC but also from IIT Delhi, as we have an MoU with the institute’s FITT (Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer).

For the Dhenkanal campus, we have an MoU with IIT Bhubaneshwar and IIM Sambalpur. We are creating an ecosystem where startups get managerial, legal and technology support.

How has AI been incorporated within the university?

There will now be just two categories – one set who is equipped with AI and the other who is not. It is important to use AI as a tool to enhance your skills and not replace you. Use AI to do the mundane work. All our courses are AI integrated. It is part of the curriculum. One good thing about IIMC is that the syllabus of every course gets updated every year as per the changing media space.

Internationalisation is an important component of NEP. How is IIMC working on it?

The Orange economy is something which the government has been talking about a lot. Does IIMC wish to venture in the space of AVGC?

Yes we definitely do. Our ministry has already given us projects and funds, where our students will be preparing stories of change. It will be a student project to capture how our society is changing. Teams have been made. It will also give the students practical experience to foray into various fields. Across all campuses students will prepare 10 stories of change videos.