If I used to be to call one college I’d need to examine communications at, it might be Zayed College. For positive, the media panorama is just not as free or as mature as what you’d discover within the UK or the USA. And there are points you can not contact upon. What makes Zayed College’s School of Communication and Media Sciences so particular is its individuals, particularly the college.
For the previous couple of years I had the honour of supporting the School as a member of and chair its Nationwide Advisory Council. I noticed first hand how passionate the college have been, the standard of their analysis, and the way they saved at their mission of guaranteeing that each scholar had the chance to study what communications was, the way it must be practiced, and the distinction that the perform has on a corporation and its individuals.
Throughout that point the School graduated hundreds of graduates; the College additionally started to supply post-graduate programs for communications professionals within the nation, with a wonderful set of programs for younger individuals, primarily Emiratis, to study superior communications theories, so that they’d be able to turn into trade leaders. Should you look across the authorities communications sector, the place many ZU graduates find yourself, and infrequently those that have one of the best understanding of communications and are capable of execute on plans have been to the School of Communication and Media Sciences.
I received’t cease there. Many ZU CCMS school members have contributed considerably to the trade. Take for instance the primary UAE version of the World Functionality Framework, which was led by Professors Gaelle Duthler and Ganga Dhanesh. Or the analysis on gender perceptions, which was undertaken by Dr Zoe Hurley for the Promoting Enterprise Group. We actually have a analysis gem in our midst, which the trade doesn’t faucet into sufficient.
The Way forward for CCMS
I’ve seen all the nice that the School of Communication and Media Sciences has carried out. I’m much less sure about its future. The College’s management is embarking on a program with a corporation known as Minerva, which is “aimed toward guaranteeing college students have cross-disciplinary abilities which are related in a fast-changing international job market”. This settlement will impression the whole college, together with CCMS, and that is regardless of Minerva not having any prior expertise in instructing communications.
Whereas there’s not an excessive amount of I can say in regards to the tie-up, I’ll say this – I’ve spent twenty years in communications, and I’ve seen the perform evolve at a frantic tempo. And the CCMS School can each perceive and clarify these modifications in a method that greatest prepares their college students for achievement. I’d argue that the best barrier to success is just not listening to the CCMS school and management – they know instructing, they know the topic, they usually know the trade. They need to be those who’re capable of form the way forward for the faculty in a method that can each enhance studying and make sure that college students stay passionate a few topic which implies such a lot to the nation and the area.
Communicators aren’t simply individuals who write notes, take footage, or create movies. We inform tales, we faucet into individuals’s feelings and we form reputations. The nation wants that, greater than ever, whether it is to be seen in the best way that the nation’s management need. And I hope that Zayed College continues to paved the way right here, due to the individuals on the School of Communication and Media Sciences.
