Introducing...the UWI Certificate in Journalism

The Certificate in Journalism programme has been structured with 2 main ideas in mind:

In the first place, we want to be sure that each of you will have the most enjoyable and effective learning experience possible. We’ve done that by providing lots of opportunities for you to integrate the theories you’re encountering with practical experiences that will make the theory more concrete. 

This programme will certainly include attendance at lectures. But it also provides ample opportunities for workshops on campus, field practice, some work experience, and always, reflection. So when you  discuss some topic during a class lecture, there’ll be lots of opportunity for you to see and experience how it feels in a journalist’s real world, and then to pull together what you’ve learned by reflecting on what it all means for your journalistic practice, when you’re out there working after you graduate. 

Also, in this programme, only 2 of the 10 courses require an end-of-semester exam. Assessment is primarily by coursework, because from our perspective, the proof of what our students can do, is  always going to be, primarily, that you can do these things in real-life working contexts.

In the second place, we’re committed to turning out people who can hit the ground running when they enter media organisations. So this programme is structured to give you more and more independence as time goes by. When you begin the programme in the first semester, you’ll have a somewhat structured learning experience. We understand that for many of you, this will be your first introduction to tertiary education. So you’ll find that there’ll be more in-class or directed course activity. But by the middle of that first semester, we’ll be expecting you to go out and find stories on your own, on-campus or off. By the second semester, most of your courses will have you out in the field, practising what you’ve been taught, even if you’re then asked to bring your work in to your supervisor, or to your lecturers and colleagues on campus for comment and guidance.

 In the last part of the programme, you’ll be doing most of your work independently, as you carry out independent projects, or assigned projects with fairly simple supervision.