Challenges in assessing vocational work at a tertiary

institution: a case study of journalism and mass

communications at the University of Swaziland

Paper presented by Dr Richard Rooney, Associate Professor and Co-

ordinator, Journalism and Mass Communications, Department of English
Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Swaziland.
rooney@uniswacc.uniswa.sz

11th Bi-Annual International Symposium for BOLESWANA, “Quality

Education: Implications for Regional and Global Development”. Hosted by
Namibia Educational Research Association / NERA, at the University of
Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, 06th – 08th July 2005.

Dr Richard Rooney 1
Challenges in assessing vocational work at a tertiary institution: a case study of
journalism and mass communications at the University of Swaziland.

Abstract
This paper explores the tensions that exist between academics mindful of the
responsibilities inherent in the delivering of university education and the needs of the
media industry and nation building within the Kingdom of Swaziland. Using the case
study of journalism and mass communications, a programme that is undergoing rapid
change at the University of Swaziland (Uniswa), the paper interrogates the dichotomy
between the scholarly (intellectual) and the vocational (practical). It argues that
university education should deliver more than technical skills and should inculcate in
students a capacity for innovation, research and critical thinking. This is done within the
framework of delivering university education within a non-democratic society.

The paper achieves its objectives by highlighting the assessment strategy for the
journalism and mass communication programme which attempt to synthesise the
practical and the theoretical in the context of curriculum design and content, teaching
and learning strategies and assessment.

Introduction
This paper examines the changes taking place within the Journalism and Mass
Communications (JMC) teaching at the University of Swaziland. A new curriculum is
being introduced for an already existing three year diploma programme and plans are
being drawn up to grow the diploma into a full bachelor degree. This paper concentrates
on some of the issues arising around assessment of the new programme and places them
in the context of curriculum design and teaching and learning strategies. The programme
aims to prepare students for the world of work in media industries in Swaziland and the
southern Africa region generally. To meet this aim the programme has to reconcile the
tensions that exist between the needs of an industry requiring vocationally trained staff
and the general expectations of universities that their graduates have a range of attributes
that demonstrate higher learning and are capable of critical thinking.

This paper discusses a project that should be considered to be very much „work in
progress‟ and comments, suggestions and reflections are solicited.

Background to the JMC Programme

The three-year Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) has just
completed its eighth year and its graduates have gone on to work in various positions in
the media in Swaziland and abroad. The intension now is to expand the programme into a
four-year Bachelor in JMC. Optimistic estimates are that the first intake can arrive for
academic year 2006-2007.

Dr Richard Rooney 2
The general aims of the present Diploma and future Bachelor programme are to produce
graduates capable of contributing to the economic, cultural and political development of
the Kingdom of Swaziland and the SADC region. The programmes will provide students
with learning in academic areas of JMC and technical skills in print journalism,
broadcasting, advertising, public relations and public information dissemination.

Specifically, the aims of the programmes are:

1. To provide theoretical foundation for understanding the nature of mass

communication and its role in national socio-economic development.
2. To develop in students a high level of journalistic skill and critical thinking.
3. To instill a high sense of responsibility in reporting issues of concern to society.
4. To inspire students to seek the truth and report the same.
5. To teach students to use the media to improve the quality of life at local and
national levels.
6. To prepare students to function effectively at local, national and continental
levels.
7. To promote professionalism.
8. To expose students to the latest technology in communication and information
dissemination.

The development of JMC has proceeded with the assistance of a number of stakeholders
including heads and supervisors at media houses such as the Times of Swaziland, the
Swazi Observer, Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS), Swaziland
Television Authority (STVA) and Trans World Radio. JMC will endeavour to further its
links with Swaziland media houses, appropriate private institutions, non-government
organizations and the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ).

What is a university for?

You can see that Uniswa has been keen to involve media industries and other interested
parties in the planning and development of the programme. Of course, these stakeholders
have their own needs and agendas (one of which is the wish to be able to employ people
with specific job skills so that they do not have to go to the expense and trouble of
training staff themselves). In informal feedback from supervisors and editors of media
houses we find that industry requirements are actually rather modest: they want staff to
have advanced reading and writing skills and possess some background knowledge of
Swaziland. There does not seem to be much understanding of the other capabilities a
graduate might possess.

These low expectations pose a problem for the university. Graduates do not need to
commit themselves to three or four years full time study to achieve the attributes required
at present by employers. A course at a trade school or similar institution might well be
enough to meet the needs. The temptation for the university is to believe that the
requirements of the industry should determine the content of the students‟ learning while
they are at university and for the university to evaluate its own success in meeting its
aims and objectives in industry terms alone. While the ability of students to find suitable

Dr Richard Rooney 3
employment on graduation is a laudable aim, it should not be the sole (and possibly the
main) criteria by which success of the programme is judged.

Before we go further it would be useful to identify what attributes a university has over
other institutions of learning. The question „what is a university for?‟ could provoke an
entire conference of its own and I would not want to divert us from the main thrust of this
paper today by pursuing that question.

However, as a general overview we can follow Sawyerr (2004) who commenting on

universities in the particular context of African countries regards the establishment of
local universities as a major part of the postcolonial national development project. The
new universities were expected to help the new nations build up their capacity to develop
and manage their resources, alleviate the poverty of the majority of their people, and
close the gap between them and the developed world.

The objective of all these new institutions was to serve the public interest by providing
home-grown leadership in areas in need of rapid material and social development.

Qualities of the graduate.

If Sawyerr is correct and universities do play a large role in helping the nation to achieve
social and economic goals, what are the attributes that graduating students should possess
so they can achieve these goals? By obtaining a degree its holder has demonstrated a
certain attainment in education. A degree is an internationally recognised qualification of
higher education. Over the years there have been some issues surrounding the „currency‟
of a degree – how can we be sure that graduates with a degree from Swaziland or
Botswana have achieved the same level as, say, graduates from South Africa – or from
Australia, the US or UK, for that matter?

The debate over the what constitutes the „graduateness‟ of students who have completed
bachelor degrees has been a continuing one in Europe for many years and the experiences
countries in that continent have in reconciling the „worth‟ of a degree might be instructive
for us here. The Bologna Declaration on European Higher Education was an attempt to
ensure that degrees across Europe were comparable. The issue was not one of
standardising curriculum rather the intention was to define what made a course a 'degree'
course.

The Bologna Declaration suggested:

Qualifications at degree level are awarded to students who have shown:
i) a systematic knowledge of key aspects of their area(s) of study, including a
coherent and detailed knowledge of some specialised aspects of their subject(s);
ii) an ability to deploy established analytical techniques within their discipline
accurately;
iii) an ability to devise and sustain arguments and / or to solve problems using ideas
or techniques some of which will be at the forefront of their subject(s);
iv) an understanding of the limits of their knowledge, and the ability critically to
evaluate evidence, concepts, arguments, and assumptions, drawn from a wide

Dr Richard Rooney 4
 range of sources, and to reach judgements on the basis of their own evaluation of
data, evidence and ideas.

Typically holders of degrees should be able to:

v) apply the methods, techniques and (where applicable) modes of practice that they
have learned and review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and
understanding;
vi) consider abstract data, concepts and / or raw materials and frame appropriate
questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem;
vii) communicate information, ideas, problems, and solutions, in a variety of formats
appropriate to both specialist and non specialist audiences;
viii) initiate, research and sustain a project, based on individual initiative and / or
research, and to present findings in a variety of media;
ix) undertake additional training of a rigorous and professional nature, enabling them
to take initiatives and accept significant responsibility within organisations;

and will have:

x) qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment in situations requiring
the exercise of personal responsibility, including the potential for decision making
in complex and unpredictable contexts of a professional or equivalent nature.

One does not necessary have to sign up to all of the Bologna Declaration but it does seem
sensible to me that after four years of university education graduates should be able to at
least meet conditions i) to iv) above.

For those of us in JMC (and I am sure others who deliver vocational and professional
programmes) the challenge is how to meet the needs of an industry eager for graduates
trained in skills employers find useful and how to ensure that graduates meet the criteria
for „graduateness‟ outlined above. In short, this is a debate about the difference between
„training‟ and „education‟. Tomaselli and Caldwell offer a useful distinction between the
two.

“Journalism „training‟ concerns mastering the technical know-how of

reporting events. Training is required to get the job done, and is often better
learnt „on the job‟. „Education‟, however, concerns the ability to solve
problems in a manner similar to the interpretation and abstraction found in
editorials and opinion columns. This ability begins with the „prior learning‟
individuals bring to their training and is honed by the ongoing reflection that
goes with experience.

“This education and the experience it engenders are necessary to understand

the processes in which news reports are embedded, and to provide the
diagnosis, analysis and commentary that constitute the responsibility of
journalism.” (Tomaselli and Caldwell, 2002, p.22).

The JMC education debate

Dr Richard Rooney 5
Tomaselli and Caldwell do not have a monopoly on wisdom in the definition of
journalism education. The role of university journalism education is a debate that has
been going on for many years. Journalism educators across the world cannot agree on the
appropriate forms of education for their students and are engaged in a continuous
argument about the purpose of journalism education in universities. The divisions within
the debate fall into three broad camps: journalism education as a craft with an emphasis
on acquiring skills through practice; journalism education as a mix of skill acquisition
and traditional liberal education; and journalism education as a critical engagement about
the place of the journalist in society (Henningham, 1999, Hargreaves, 2002, Thomas,
2000, Johansen, 2001, Adam, 2001, Skinner, 2001).

The purpose of journalism teaching in a developing country with a small commercial

media is not only to mould competent practitioners but to help to produce a group of
graduates capable of thinking in wider terms about what the country needs from the
media (Moore, 1999, p. 65).

Academics in developing countries have for a long time recognised the need for their
universities to raise their game in journalism and mass communications education. They
see a dearth of self-criticism and critical appreciation of the media (Dalal, 1997, p. 102),
and a need for MPhil and Ph.D courses to attract the brightest students alongside a
requirement for faculty members to possess research-based qualifications (Behera, 1994,
p. 140). At university level journalism education should encompass liberal arts and an
interdisciplinary approach allowing students to develop the ability to analyse new
situations and come to reasonable conclusions for action (Hukill, 1994, p.201.)

Tomaselli and Caldwell (2002) have given high prominence to the need for journalists to
develop research skills “to move beyond the mimicry of official sources about events to
the investigation of issues and their contexts” (p.23). In their view the role of a journalist
is to seek the truth as far as this is possible and use empirical methods in finding facts.

A number of scholars in developed countries have approaches that might be adapted to

help to improve the situation in Swaziland. Adam wants to see the formation of the
journalist as a whole and not just their apprenticeship into specific fundamental skills.
Journalism students benefit from general study and should engage in law, economics,
politics and sociology (Adam, 2001, pp. 318-326). Skinner identifies the need for
students to know that news production is a convergence of theory and practice and that
depicting events involves more than a simple presentation of facts (Skinner, 2001, p.345),
while Johansen recognises that journalists have to learn to „organise the daily intelligence
of a community, state or universe and make it cohere‟ (Johansen, 2001, p.479).

Students are taught a way of seeing and presenting the world without fully understanding
the reasons why they are employing a particular method or the impact that the tools they
utilise have on the depictions they render (Skinner, 2001, p.345).

This is particularly important in the case of Swaziland. The political system in Swaziland
is one of monarchical supremacy where the king enjoys unfettered executive and

Dr Richard Rooney 6
legislative powers. Most of the media is state owned or controlled by the monarchy and
as a consequence there is a tiny free press.

A JMC curriculum that operates in a country that is a non-democracy must recognise that
journalism is a practice that is necessary to foster democracy. Today, there is a worldwide
geopolitical consensus that political systems should exist to provide opportunities for all
the people to influence government and practice (DFID 2001) and that the media
reinforce or foster this kind of democracy (Price and Krug, 2002, p.3).

Emmanuel Ojo (2003) has observed that mass media perform five specific functions:
reporting the news, interpreting the news, influencing citizens‟ opinions, setting the
agenda for government action, and socializing citizens about politics encouraging a
political culture to evolve (Ojo, 2003, p.828).

To engage effectively there is an assumption that access to information is the first

requirement for an engaged, participative democracy (Roth, 2001, p.13). An active
citizenry will help prevent governmental excesses and breed trust in the democratic
system, thereby enabling the private media to perform their functions (Tetty, 2003, p.28)
and the media are the major mechanisms by which citizens are informed about the world
(Sparks, 1991). There are specific public interest political goals which the media can be
used to serve, including the following: informing the public, public enlightenment, social
criticism and exposing government arbitrariness, national integration and political
education. But the more the media serve the narrow self interest the less able they are to
serve the other group of public interests (Ojo, 2003, pp.829-830).

Challenges in the JMC Curriculum

In order to meet the needs of both the media stakeholders and the university a revised
curriculum for the diploma was drawn up in 2002 after a consultant‟s report was
delivered by Dr Ted Scwalbe, professor in communications at State University of New
York College Fredonia, US.

Scwalbe reported that the Swaziland media industry practitioners had said that journalists
tended to be deficient in background knowledge of the country.

“Journalists must have an extensive breadth of knowledge to adequately inform the

public on the wide variety of issues that they may cover. In order to get deeper into a
story, put in some perspective, make it relevant etc., journalists need a broad educational
background. It is also understood that potential employees also need, marketable skills
that can only come from courses in communications” (Scwalbe, 2002).

Scwalbe wrote an outline curriculum that with modifications is the one that is being
instigated now. In the proposal most of the coursework is made up of required courses,
but students have the choice in year three to specialise in practical skills based courses in
print, broadcasting, advertising or public relations. There is a continuing debate about
whether students should specialise at all as their job prospects in any single branch of the
media in Swaziland remains slim (Swaziland is after all a poor country with a very

Dr Richard Rooney 7
underdeveloped media industry) and instead instruction in as wide a range of media types
as possible enhances the chance of future employment. Students are also required to
attend an eight week supervised internship at a media house.

The programme also includes a range of classroom based „academic‟ courses in media
and communication and liberal studies including sociology, history and economics as
well as English language and computer skills instruction. One assumption made in the
redesign was that outside of the communications courses breadth rather than depth of
coursework was desirable.

The connection between curriculum, learning and assessment

This paper concentrates on the assessment challenges of the new programme but we
should remember that any assessment strategy cannot be divorced from a programme‟s
curriculum and teaching and learning strategies. For any programme to succeed staff and
students alike should be able to explicitly identify the objectives of the programme and
the constituent course / subjects / modules that make it up.

At university level such objectives should be characterised by four general types of

learning. The task when creating coherent learning environments for students is to: (i)
identify where these types of learning are embedded into the curriculum; (ii) identify the
strategies we as teachers will use to ensure that students learn what they need to learn;
and (iii) identify through assessment strategies how students will demonstrate they have
learnt what we want them to learn.

The four types of learning that we are seeking to impart on students in JMC are:

 Knowledge and understanding of the subject of JMC, often developed through

lectures and seminars. Such direct teaching methods are usually supported by directed
study of textbooks and journal articles and by assignment or project work.
Knowledge and understanding is often assessed through unseen written examinations,
but most if not all assessment methods will require some demonstration of knowledge
and understanding.
 Intellectual skills such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and problem solving may be
practised and demonstrated through more active learning processes involving
assignments or projects, group-learning activity such as a seminar or tutorial,
laboratory, workshop, or field-based activity. Assessment of intellectual skills can
utilise unseen written examinations or problem-based exercises. Independent project
work have been used in the past in JMC to demonstrate capability in a range of
intellectual skills linked to specialist knowledge and understanding.
 Practical skills need to be developed through opportunities to practise the activity in
an appropriate learning context (e.g. in simulated newsroom, studio, undertaking
location work or workplace placement). Work-books or guidance manuals may also
be used to support learning. Assessment of competence in exercising a practical skill
must involve practical demonstration of it.
 Transferable/key skills, that are readily transferable to employment and other
contexts, such as communication, teamwork etc. can be developed through naturally

Dr Richard Rooney 8
 arising opportunities within the curriculum. For example, written communication
skills can be developed and assessed through essays; oral communication skills
through presentations in seminars; or team working skills through collaborative
projects. Skills may be developed also through extra-curricular activities including
student representative work and social and cultural activities.

At Uniswa we still have a long way to go in concluding our revisions on the JMC
Diploma and on writing a new BA Degree. We have already stated the overall aims of the
programme (see above). For our purpose the „aims‟ are defined as a general statement
about what the programme intends to achieve. We now need to identify objectives that
state what needs to be achieved in order for the aims to be met. We need to demonstrate
how the curriculum supports the attainment of the objectives and how the assessments of
students show they have met the objectives. (It should always be possible to measure an
objective.) We also need to be able to demonstrate that the aims and objectives meet the
standards required for university courses.

A process will need to take place for us to demonstrate to ourselves, to students, the
university and stakeholders that we have coherent curriculum, teaching and learning and
assessment strategies. We have yet to finalise our methodology but one way that has
currency in some countries is the „internal audit‟. This consists of a self evaluation that
asks a series of questions of staff, students and stakeholders. Here is an example of a
questionnaire that might be used in JMC, in order to audit the programme curriculum‟s
content and coherence.

1. Does the curriculum allow an organised progression so that the demands on the
student in intellectual challenge, skills, knowledge and learning autonomy increase
from one year to another?
2. Is the programme balanced in terms of the number of its different elements? (E.g.
academic and practical elements, balance between personal development and
academic outcomes and the breadth and depth of the subject material in the course.)
3. What choice do students have within the curriculum? (E.g. options within the
programme, electives from outside of the course, pathways through the programme).
Why are these choices made available?
4. How does the curriculum take account of the needs of professional accreditation
bodies (if relevant)?
5. How do teaching staff feed their own research / professional specialties into the
curriculum?
6. How do you ensure that the curriculum content is kept up to date? (E.g. through
current research and scholarship, changes in relevant occupational and professional
requirements.)
7. How do you ensure all staff, including part time and new staff, are aware of and
implement the curriculum content, organisation and design strategies of the
department?
8. Does the curriculum have integrity? (E.g. are the expectations given to student and
others about the intended learning outcomes of the course honest and deliverable? Is

Dr Richard Rooney 9
 it possible to attain the stated course outcomes?) (Adapted from Quality Assurance
Agency, 2004).

Lists of questions can also be drawn up for teaching and learning strategies.

Assessment
Before we look at the specific questions we might ask about assessment of JMC courses,
we should remind ourselves why we feel that we need to assess students in any case.

Increasingly we live in a society where people are appointed and employed on the basis
of their qualifications and because of this some method has to be designed to demonstrate
the capabilities and competences of people. This occurs at all levels of life from the
youngest primary school child to experienced workers.

In the university context students themselves need feedback to help them to find out how
their learning is going and teachers also need feedback on how well students' learning is
progressing, so that we can adjust and develop our teaching. And if JMC students at
Uniswa are typical, assessment is often the major driving force which gets students down
to serious studying.

To work well assessment must be seen to be fair to both the student and the institution. It
should allow base competencies to be demonstrated, but should also allow excellence to
be shown.

Using the internal audit process discussed above the following questions might form the
basis of an audit on assessment.

1. What are your arrangements to monitor, evaluate and demonstrate the fairness of
assessments? Do staff and students understand the arrangements?
2. How effective is the assessment design and practice in terms of:
 The linking of assessment to learning objectives;
 Clarity of students‟ understanding of assessment criteria and assignments;
 Promoting learning (including the quality of the feedback you give to students)?
3. How can staff and students distinguish between different categories of achievement in
the assessments (E.g. how do you assess subject-specific knowledge, cognitive skills,
practical competencies?)
4. Does your assessment strategy have a formative function in developing student
abilities? (Formative assessment is designed to provide students with feedback on
progress and help them to develop, but does not necessarily contribute to their overall
assessment.)
5. How consistent and rigorous is your department‟s marking of assessments? (E.g. do
all staff understand and apply the assessment strategy? Are marking guides used?)
6. Does internal moderation of marking take place within your department? (E.g. does a
sample of one teacher‟s marking and feedback get „second marked‟ by a colleague in
the department before marks are taken to a department meeting?)

Dr Richard Rooney 10
7. Do the standards achieved by your students meet the minimum expectations for the
diploma / degree? (E.g. one important piece of evidence is the students‟ assessed
work itself. Would an academic in your discipline from another university agree that
your students‟ work was of an appropriate standard?)
8. Do you publish clear rules governing the conduct of assessment? (E.g. deadlines for
submission of assessed work and penalties for late or non-submission?)
9. What discretion do you use for students whose assessment performance might have
been adversely affected by personal circumstances? (E.g. illness, death in the family.)
10. How do you deal with concerns from students about unfair operation of assessment
procedures and what types of evidence are normally required to investigate such
matters? (E.g. what happens if students dispute the mark they are given? What
happens if students complain that assessment tasks were not covered in the subject
syllabus?)
11. How do you decide on the total number of assessment tasks students undertake? What
steps are taken to avoid assessment „overload‟?
12. How do you ensure students have adequate time to reflect on their learning before
being assessed? (Adapted from Quality Assurance Agency, 2004).

Assessing critical thinking

One area that is particularly problematic for JMC and one that we need to do more work
on is the assessment of critical thinking. We need to identify the crucial connection
between teaching and learning strategies and assessment for we cannot expect students to
deliver assessment objectives if they have not been given proper opportunities to learn.
This situation is not unique to JMC programmes or to Uniswa. Within universities it is
now almost universally accepted that the teaching of critical thinking skills is integral to
students whatever the learning level in any university course. The importance of the
integration between learning and assessment is highlighted by Stefani (2004, p.61) who
demonstrates why it must be clear to the students what is expected of them and every
effort must be made to ensure that students understand the assessment criteria in the way
that staff intended them to be understood.

To illustrate the point she says:

“… academic staff [….] were […] trying to promote „critical thinking‟ by

setting assignments in the form of essays which asked students to „compare
and contrast‟, to „interpret‟, to „critically evaluate‟, etc., it turned out that the
students were very poor at defining these terms. Their tendency was to
„describe‟ or to merely „present‟ what they considered to be the appropriate
content relevant to the topic of the essay.

“[…] it turned out that while academic staff wanted to promote critical
thinking and to assess for critical thinking and reflection through the device of
essays, the methods of teaching or facilitating learning did not in any way
promote such critical thinking in the classroom. The teaching methods were
primarily transmission-based and content-driven with few opportunities for
students to engage in critical inquiry.”

Dr Richard Rooney 11
Stefani concludes

“[…] that this situation highlights and affirms that academic staff themselves
need to critically analyse the assignments they set for their students and ensure
that there is a shared understanding between staff and students of what is
expected within the teaching and learning contract. In other words, enhancing
students‟ capacity for critical reflection requires us to offer clear guidance
about what is required for critical reflection, give feedback on how reflective
capacities can be improved and model critical reflection throughout the
courses we offer and present” (Stefani, 2004, pp.61-62).

Conclusion
This paper was a discussion of work in progress in the redesign of a Diploma programme
in JMC and the creation of a Bachelor Degree. It set out to illustrate how our thinking on
the development is progressing at Uniswa. We are at an early stage of our work and there
are many gaps that still need to be filled and further reflection on the challenge is needed.
We invite interested parties to help us in this reflection.

References

Adam, G. (2001). The Education of Journalists. Journalism 2(3), pp.315-340.

DFiD (2001), Making Government Work for Poor People: Building State Capability.
Strategies for achieving the international development targets. Department for
International Development, London.

Hargreaves, I. (2002).Young, graduated and white, Press Gazette Online, UK.

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/Features.View.aspx?ContentID=293

Henningham, J. (1999). Proud to be a Journalism Educator, Australian Journalism

Review 21 (3), pp.181-196.

Hukill, M. (1994). Communication Education in Singapore: Responding to Media Needs.

Media Asia 21(4), pp.199-205.

Johansen, P. Weaver, D. Dornan, C. (2001). Journalism Education in the United States

and Canada: not merely clones, Journalism Studies 2(4), pp.485-496.

Moore, C. (1995). “Journalism as a Foreign Language”, in D. Robie (ed.), Nius Bilong

Pasifik Mass Media in the Pacific, University of Papua New Guinea Press, Port Moresby,
pp.63-72.

Ojo, E. O. (2003). The Mass media and the challenges of sustainable democratic values
in Nigeria: possibilities and limitations. Media, Culture & Society, 25(6), pp.821-840.

Dr Richard Rooney 12
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2004). Handbook for Academic
Review: England. QAA, Gloucester, UK. www.qaa.ac.uk

Sawyerr, A. (2004). Challenges Facing African Universities: Selected Issues. African

Studies Review, April 2004.

Scwalbel, T. (2002). Journalism and Mass Communication Education at the University of

Swaziland, unpublished paper, University of Swaziland.

Skinner, D. Gasher, M. Compton J (2001). Putting Theory to Practice: a Critical

Approach to Journalism Studies, Journalism 2(3), pp.341-360.

Stefani, L. (2004). Assessment of Student Learning: Promoting a Scholarly Approach.

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), pp 51-66.

Thomas, R. (2000). Industry Influences on Journalism Training: Thoughts for the Future.
Paper delivered at the Journalism Educators Association of New Zealand Conference,
Christchurch, New Zealand.

Tomaselli G. and M Caldwell (2002) Journalism Education: Bridging Media and Culture
Studies, Communicatio 28 (1) pp. 22-28.

Dr Richard Rooney 13