With the Ahmedabad-based MICA claiming it has been œmisclassified, the A.J. Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre, Delhi has been conceded first rank
THE AHMEDABAD-BASED Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), promoted in 1991, has been reaffirmed as India™s #1 mass communication institution in the second EducationWorld India Professional Colleges Rankings 2014. A sample respondents database comprising 290 media professionals, 151 faculty and 125 mass comm students voted this 23-year-old institute which offers its flagship two-year wholly-residential postgrad diploma in communications management with specialisations in brand, media (including new media), advertising and market research, #1 for the second year in succession.
However, while œgratified with the premier status conferred on the institute, Vaneet Chibber, professor and chairperson of corporate relations and media at MICA, believes the institute is œmisclassified as it is focused on œcommunications management and not mass communication. œWe wish to clarify that our students do not pursue journalism careers. One of the specialisations we offer is media management and not mass communication. MICA has been misclassified, wrote Chibber in an email requesting EW to exclude MICA from the mass communication rankings in future. Your correspondent™s contention that for the purposes of this survey, mass communication has been broadly defined to encompass print, television, radio and online journalism, media management, marketing communications, advertising and public relations, was not accepted.
Be that as it may, ranked a close second in the league table of India™s most highly rated mass communication institutes is the A.J. Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre (AJK MCRC, estb. 1988) of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, which was third ranked in 2013.
Founded by Anwar Jamal Kidwai, former vice chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University, in collaboration with York University, Toronto, and the Canadian International Development Aid Agency, AJK MCRC is a constituent school of the Central government-funded Jamia Millia Islamia University. Currently it offers postgraduate and doctoral programmes in mass comm, journalism, animation and broadcast technology to 200 students (annual tuition fee: Rs.49,000-75,600).
œAJK MCRC is a one-of-its-type institution in India™s university system which deserves premier ranking. We offer world-class infrastructure and equipment, and the best faculty of any media education institute countrywide. Most faculty members are practitioners who have spent long years in the media. That™s why our graduates are in great demand by top media houses as they can hit the ground running from day one, says Prof. M. Obaid Siddiqui, director of AJK MCRC.
This year AJK MCRC has pushed the previously second ranked Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, to #3 while the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi, has retained its #4 ranking. An institution which has dramatically risen in public esteem is the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication (SNSAC, estb. 1987) of Hyderabad University which is ranked #5 (cf. #8 in 2013) this year. A school of the Central government-funded Hyderabad University (estb. 1974), SNSAC offers postgraduate and doctoral programmes in radio and video production, print and new media journalism, and communication and media studies, to 240 students who pay a subsidised annual tuition fee of Rs.20,000.
œI attribute our improved ranking to growing awareness that SNSAC provides practical learning based on strong theoretical foundations. Moreover, our infrastructure is excellent. We pride ourselves on our state-of-the-art television and radio studios, a print lab with latest design software, and the excellent placements of our students in industry and academia. Over the past two decades we have established a good record of intellectual output in terms of publications as well as for advocacy on key issues of media development, says Usha Raman, dean of SNSAC.
Indeed a highlight of india™s top 15 mass communication institutes rankings 2014 is that mass comm departments/centres of universities have risen high in public esteem. While AJK MCRC and SNSAC have improved their ranking to second and fifth respectively, Pune University™s school of communication and journalism has also improved its ranking to #12 this year, while Symbiosis University™s Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication has retained its #7 rank.
Yet, though these four university-affiliated departments have favourably impacted informed public opinion, the league table of mass comm institutes is dominated by private sector institutions offering intensive one-two year diploma programmes. Consistently top-rated media schools include the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai (ranked #6); Times School of Journalism, Delhi (8); Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore (9) and Amity School of Communication, Delhi (10).
To read India™s most preferred mass communication institutes visit https://www.educationworld.in/rank-mass_communication/2014.html