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 The UK has been slow to accept journalism as a field of study at institutions of higher education. The trade of journalism usually followed the path of an apprenticeship at a local newspaper or radio or TV station followed by movement to regional media followed by promotion to the major dailies. Along the way a young journalist could specialize and learn the ropes in a variety of areas.
The dominant philosophy in the industry was that training was essentially don on-the-job and any university education was considered separate and more geared to theory and journalism studies rather than training.
The University of Wales at Cardiff initiated the first university journalism degree in 1970, which was a post grad degree in journalism studies. The industry, however, generally believed that academic training did not produce good journalists or journalists ill suited to the daily rigours of daily newspapers.
By the 1990s, however, journalism began to be seen more as profession and a university courses in journalism began to appear. Journalism courses in the UK suddenly became fashionable and in response primarily to the desire of students adopted a more vocational and less academic approach to instruction. Lecturers were more likely to be ex-journalists than professors and an accreditation body was established.
Unlike the North America where journalism degrees are seen as not only desirable but necessary, newspapers in the UK remain skeptical and have been slow to embrace graduates. Local newspaper employers have retained apprenticeships but others, particularly in broadcasting, have embraced university trained recruits who arrive with transferable, rather than specific, skills which are developed in universities.
A number of universities began offering communication degrees and City University’s BA, was the first to offer journalism with a social science degree.
Today, the numbers of graduates from so called j-schools who enter the industry has risen from 30% in 1981 to 83% today. And many of them enter directly into the national media.
Most vocational journalism courses in the UK universities offer similar courses and designed to equip graduates for first jobs in print and/or broadcasting. Undergrad degrees usually feature 50% or more journalism training and most feature an internship component. Postgraduate courses normally involve at least 80% practical journalism.
Current preference within the United Kingdom is for entrants to first complete a non media-studies related degree course, giving maximum educational breadth, prior to taking a specialist postgraduate pre-entry course, most of which are either recognised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) or the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).
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