By Enock Sithole
The recently introduced programmes in journalism, media and communication studies at the Uganda Christian University (UCU) and the University of Rwanda (UR) are well underway and have now enrolled their second cohorts.
The PhD programme at UCU is proceeding with 10 candidates from last year’s cohort and has enrolled another 10 for the 2025 intake.
The master’s programme at UR now counts a student population of about 50 students comprising last year’s and this year’s cohort, said programme coordinator, Professor Terje Skjerdal of Norway’s NLA University College. NLA has championed the programmes in partnership with the two universities and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
“Both of the programmes have now been running for a year, and it’s gone well in both cases, and we are so happy to see that they are now stabilising,” he said.
Both programmes have attracted students from the professions of media, journalism and communication coming from diverse sectors in the two countries. The programmes comprise coursework and a research report. UCU’s PhD candidates will finish in a minimum of three years, while UR’s master’s will finish in two years. Both groups are now working on their research proposals, said Prof Skjerdal.
At the UCU PhD programme “we have three courses, and they are taught for 10 weeks, approximately three times a week, and the teaching is mostly in the digital format. The students are mainly living in Kampala, but also in other places, in Uganda and even abroad,” said Prof Skjerdal.
He said online teaching has created an opportunity for teaching and learning from a distance. Teachers and students meet once a year physically for week-long seminars.
“Half of the students will do projects that are journalism-related, and the rest will do projects that are related to general communication, including popular subjects such as health communication,” said Prof Skjerdal. The research projects are a “menu” of different research topics. Methodologically, the projects occur within both in-depth qualitative and quantitative research paradigms, gathering and interpreting large data.
The candidates will be given between two to four years to conduct their research, considering that they are also busy in their professional careers, some of whom are academics. Eight candidates have financial support from the programme while the remaining two pay their fees.
The master’s programme at UR is also powering on with the 2024 cohort now in their second and final year and working on their research proposals.
The intensive programme is offered through physical attendance in the form of seminars from Monday to Saturday, with visiting lecturers brought from different partner universities from different countries. The bulk of the teaching is done by UR lectures, said Prof Skjerdal.
The course work is a combination of theoretical and practical courses covering journalism, media and communication subjects. “There are fundamentals of audio-visual production, and advanced multimedia production, which are the practical courses. The rest of the courses are communication theory, journalism theory, media and governance, gender, culture and communication and different theoretical subjects.”
The programme has just shipped several pieces of studio equipment to the university for practical training.
Asked about the impact the two programmes would have beyond just academic qualifications for the students, Prof Skjerdal said: “In both programs, many of the students are lecturers at different local universities. So, a big part of the competence is to learn teaching methods and content to be used for teaching at local universities. Then, of course, we also aim to educate practitioners (in various sectors).
“Those who are working in the media will typically be equipped with a leadership competence in media studies. These candidates, in both Uganda and Rwanda, will be leaders at different levels in the media business, but also in different communication agencies. These degrees are mainly about educating leaders in journalism and communication as well as teachers, lecturers and researchers,” he ended.
The Article, New Phd and MA programs at UCU and UR powering on, was originally published in the Ajenda Newsletter on March 12, 2025