Dean Of NSUK Faculty Of Communication And Media Studies Speakers On The Idea Behind New Faculty

Recently, the erstwhile Department of Mass Communications in the Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) was upgraded to a full-fledged faculty known as the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies.

In this Exclusive Interview with Eggonnews, the Dean of the new Faculty, Prof. Muhammad S. Rabiu spoke about the idea behind the upgrade and the options now available to existing and intending undergraduate and post graduate students of the new faculty.

Brief Profile on Prof. Muhammad S. Rabiu

He is a father and he is a Professor of Journalism and Media Studies. He had his first degree from the University of Maiduguri in 1987 in Mass Communication. The second degree from the American University in Cairo, Egypt; MA Mass Communication. The third was PhD in Mass Communication from the Benue State University Makurdi.

He started lecturing at the University of Maiduguri as a Graduate Assistant on November 8, 1988 and rose through the ranks. After nine years of teaching, he left the University of Maiduguri and came to Nasarawa State University Keffi as pioneer coordinator of Mass Communication Department. Remarkably, he opened the department as HOD and he is also the one closing it as a Department as HOD and then also pioneering the Faculty.

 Recently it was in the news that the Senate of NSUK ratified the upgrading of the Department of Mass Communications to a full-fledged faculty starting with three departments. What are the departments?

The departments are Public Relations, Broadcasting and then Journalism and Media Studies. Those are the three out of a possible eight. The other five will be opened later when we have more hands and more facilities.

We also understand that you are the Dean of the Faculty. With the new Faculty, what will now be the fate of the undergraduate students who are reading Mass Communication?

At undergraduate level, it will start with the 100 level in this session. The current Mass Communication students that are in 200, 300 or 400 level, will graduate with their BSc. in Mass Communication that they registered for from their first year and which they also registered for in JAMB. The records are there and they won’t change. It is the ones just coming in in 100 level in this 2023/24 session that will go into any of the three departments and no longer graduate with BSc. Mass Communication but BSc. Public Relations, BSc. Broadcasting, BSc. Journalism and Media Studies. Admission of students into the faculty sequence programs will start next session during the November admission for 2024/2025 academic session.

How about the Post Graduate Students; those reading MSc. Mass Communication and the likes?

It is the same thing with the Post Graduate level. Those that are on the program will continue with the courses that they originally registered for under Mass Communication. I think even the ones coming in, registering for PhD in the 2023/24 session, they will continue like that. It is from the 2024/25 session from September this year that they will now register for PR, Broadcasting and then Journalism and Media Studies.

Although the other departments too, they can still register for them, they can write thesis on them and the Dean will sign since there are no HODs for now for Film and Multimedia Studies and then Information and Media Studies and then Strategic Communication Studies. We have not yet opened them so there are no HODs for them. But at the Post Graduate level, people can write thesis even on those courses and the Dean will sign for all of them as the HOD.

Even though you have touched this question but I still want to ask, how will you fix the newly admitted students into the new departments? Are you going to reverse the admission based on the new development?

It will not be reversed because it is not their fault. We gave JAMB information since last year. You know they give universities a chance each year to update their information. So the university sent some staff to come here to find out if there are some changes in our name and our requirements and the programs we offer. And we said yes, we are no longer the Department of Mass Communication but the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies from the 2023/24 session. We gave them the new name. And the requirements remain the same.

And then we said we now have three departments as I mentioned earlier. That information we gave them, I don’t know whether they have now given JAMB or not. But I don’t think they have given them because I went there to ask. So this 100 level coming in, they still registered for Mass Communication. But when they come in, we advise them that there is no Mass Communication but we now have three departments that they can choose from. They start in their different departments. When the time comes, we will organize orientation for them and explain to them further.

We can also let them go ahead like that with the BSc Mass Communication and then start implementing it from the set after their own – that is, the 2024/25 session by September or November this year. We can choose to start with them.

With the UTME that is to be written by April this year, JAMB will be able to include the new information that we are a faculty and we have three departments running programs under the faculty. They should be able to include it in their brochure for the year so that those sitting for the exam this year will be guided accordingly.

Have you sent the information to JAMB?

It is not our responsibility to do that. We operate under the university. It is the university that should send the information to them.

But that is what I have tried to find out from the responsible party. I reminded them that we no longer operate as Department of Mass Communication but as a faculty with three departments. I was hoping that JAMB had already gotten all the necessary information.

As the pioneer Dean of the new faculty, what do you think will be your main challenge in setting up the faculty?

Of course in life there will always be challenges. But whatever they are, we shall call the attention of the University management to them and they would attend to them promptly.

One of the major challenges is going to be office accommodation for the three new HODs. You can see a building out there that they call Faculty of Social Sciences Annex. It has 22 offices. And even before the unbundling, they had given us six offices. The work there should finish by end of February and by first week of March we should have those offices. They will contain the Head of PR, the Head of Broadcasting, the Head of Journalism and Media Studies and of course the senior professors because all the offices are professorial with private conveniences and bigger than this even. They will also have very quality furniture.

The senior lecturers should also have offices like this with private conveniences. So any other senior lecturer that doesn’t have an office like this will move into…

Like I said, the major challenge will be office accommodation but as you can see even that is being addressed. That is the only challenge I can think of right now. All the other things, we have our autonomy now and we can operate as a faculty.

We have already changed the name of the students’ association now from MACOSA because we no longer have BSc Mass Communication anymore. We have changed it to FACOMSSA – Faculty of Communication and Media Studies Students’ Association. They are doing a new signboard for the garden because it is no longer MACOSA garden but FACOMSSA garden. All the signs have been put up. The former HOD’s office becomes the Dean’s office.

Another challenge we may have on the long run is that we may not have enough hands to run the other departments that are yet to be opened. That is why we are limiting ourselves to only three departments now for which we have the expertise. Although we still need some few more hands even for the three departments we have opened but for those that we have not opened it is going to be a massive employment opportunity for would-be lecturers who will come in to teach Information and Media Studies for example and then Strategic Communication Studies.

But we are going to do cross teaching. One professor can be in Journalism and Media Studies and also be in Broadcasting. Like Ogande can teach Public Relations courses and can also teach Advertising courses. I can also be in PR, in Journalism and Media Studies and in Broadcasting too for News Writing. We can cross teach so one lecturer can teach in three departments but will be identified with one. Cross teaching will help us address that problem.

Do you have any other thing to add?

The only thing I want to add is that the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Suleiman Bala Mohammed will go down in history as the Vice Chancellor that upgraded Mass Communication Department to a faculty. And that is a huge credit for him. And we are grateful to him for that single action.

And I wish us great success as a faculty. My desire is that with the support of my colleagues, I take the faculty in particular and then the university to great heights. My appointment as Dean is for a period of two years effective from February 2024 while that of Prof. Akpede who is HOD Broadcast is for two years also. The appointment of both Dr. Santas and Dr. Ogande as Heads of Journalism and Public Relations Departments respectively is for one year each. Together I hope we can take the faculty to the level we all desire.