The University of Kent has confirmed plans to close its Centre for Journalism (CfJ) in a decision described as a “loss for public service journalism and for efforts to widen access to the profession”.
The CfJ, which itself is profitable, will close once its existing students finish their courses to enable the sale of the building that is its home to “help fill a massive hole” in the wider university’s finances.
The CfJ was founded in 2008 by ex-Scotsman editor Tim Luckhurst and he was soon joined by former Press Gazette editor Ian Reeves, who later became head of the centre. It runs NCTJ-accredited undergraduate and postgraduate courses and offers students the chance to work with the team at local channel KMTV.
Director of studies Angela Harrison wrote on Linkedin on Friday: “Many universities are struggling under the difficult financial situation and a tuition fee which has declined in value as inflation has risen, as many recent news stories show… but this is a loss for public service journalism and for efforts to widen access to the profession.”
The CfJ aims to attract students who may not otherwise have considered a university education, many from low-income backgrounds.
As a result of the end to a cap on student numbers at each institution, Russell Group universities “boasted a 42% increase in undergrad journalism students over the previous five years, compared to a 20% aggregate decline for all other universities,” as Reeves explained for Press Gazette last month.
Reeves wrote: “These are the students who would continue to have diversified your future newsrooms, but for whom travelling to study in Sheffield, Cardiff or even central London would not realistically be an option. Neither would they be able to think about paying up front for a commercial postgrad course after racking up 3 years of other student debt.
“A future where journalism training gravitates only toward the more elite universities is not going to help the already-acute diversity problem that the NCTJ’s report last year so starkly illuminated.”
The report put the proportion of journalists from professional and upper class backgrounds at 72%, versus around 42% of the general population.
The University of Kent said it decided to phase out a “small number of courses where we no longer feel we can be competitive”.
Aside from journalism, the anthropology, art history, health and social care, music and audio technology, and philosophy/religious studies departments are also closing.
The university also said: “Like many in the sector, we are responding to a number of financial challenges including the fixed tuition fee, rising costs and changes in student behaviour. This programme of work is to ensure we get ahead of this, adjusting what we do to match changes in demographics while meeting the ambition of students in what they can study at Kent and the ways we support them in doing that.
“None of this is a reflection on the quality or societal value of any course or subject area being consulted on – we simply don’t think we at Kent can continue to recruit competitively to every course given national student number projections.”
‘Not enough’ potential journalism students
Kent’s decision comes weeks after the University of South Wales said it would end its own BJTC (the broadcast training body) accredited journalism undergraduate course after almost 20 years. It similarly will finish teaching students currently enrolled but will not recruit anymore.
A USW spokesperson said: “The decision to close BA Journalism was not taken lightly. Unfortunately, we have not seen sufficient growth in student numbers to provide the rich student experience and culture we strive to achieve.
“This is partly because of a decline in the number of students studying Journalism and Media Studies in the UK, meaning there are not enough potential students, despite the excellence of our staff, students and partnerships.
“Our BA Media, Culture and Journalism, BA Sports Journalism and MA Visual Journalism courses all continue to recruit strongly in a competitive market and we remain committed to provision within this subject area.”
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