An extended interview with the new director of CARIMAC

Q. You worked as senior lecturer at CARIMAC before your appointment, how has this prepared you for your new role?

A. As a senior lecturer I was inevitably very close to the manner in which the institute was administered, how it related to the Faculty of Humanities, as a department, and to the rest of the university. So to that extent it was good preparation in terms of knowing where CARIMAC was located in the wider university community.

That period as a senior lecturer also allowed me an insight into where the institute strategically was heading and where it should be heading and how it related to media and communication services for which it was producing graduates.

Q. As the new director for CARIMAC, what is your vision for the department in the medium and long term?

A. My vision is to continue the push to transform CARIMAC into a modern professional training institute for media and communication services, to produce graduates for not only the Caribbean and regional markets, but to produce graduates who are globally competitive. Once we've established that, we need to maintain all of that through quality training, instruction and education. [My vision] is also to ensure that the CARIMAC brand, linked with the UWI brand, is attractive to students.

Q. What are some of the challenges that you face?

A. We face significant challenges, one of which is the infrastructure within which we're working and the resources with which we're working. For example, the building that we are in is over 30 years old. It was built for the volume of students which is about one-sixth of what we now have enrolled. So to that extent, we're literally bursting at the seams.

There are lots of problems that come with a building as old as this one. The Principal is aware of our needs and has given an undertaking to attend to our needs as soon as possible, but we're also aware that it may be some time before that happens.

We are also worried about the impact of the economic situation on some of the resources that we use for teaching. One of things we want to ensure is that the teaching platforms that we use are industry standard so that students, when they go into the working world, do not have to re-educate themselves because the equipment that we use to train may be dated.

Those are the immediate challenges.

Q. This year CPTC, now MTI, announced their partnership with UTECH to offer a degree in Media. To what extent do you see this synergy impacting how CARIMAC operates?

A. We don't just look at the competition, but where media and communication services are going and the needs of these services. And then we try to condition our programmes in that direction.  

We also try to ensure that while we're delivering training, we're delivering the standard of education required for any graduate of the university.

So we look at it from two angles: What sort of graduate do we want to produce? One that is competent in particular media and communication services and one who's capable of a fair degree of critical and analytical thinking, a creative thinker and problem solver who has the technical skills to work in media and communication. Once we've do that, we condition what we offer the students.

Q. In the last five years CARIMAC has diversified its programme offerings to address certain short falls and trends in the industry. How do you see the programme offerings evolving in the near future?

A. We'll have significant reformatting of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Already we've changed our undergraduate programme from the one programme we have been offering for the last 15 to 20 years, which was a degree in Media and Communication with six discrete specialisations. We will phase out the current BA in Media and Communication. We are replacing that degree with four degree programmes. These are degrees in Journalism, Digital Media Production, Integrated Marketing Communication and Media and Communication Studies.

The Digital Media Production and Journalism programmes have already been approved by the university. Digital Media Production is being delivered at the Western Jamaica Campus this year and will start at the Mona Campus in September 2010. Also starting in September 2010 is the BA in Journalism. The drafts for Integrated Marketing Communication and Media and Communication Studies are being completed and they will soon be sent to relevant committees in the university to be reviewed.

We are also going to make changes at the graduate level, where we now offer two MA programmes. We intend to add new programmes for professional certification which will be linked to the undergraduate programme. So there'll be an MA in Journalism, an MA in Digital Media Production and an MA in Integrated Marketing Communication.

The existing MAs in Communication Studies and Communication for Social and Behaviour Change are linked with the new BA in Media and Communication Studies.

In addition to those, we'll offer an MA in Media and Education. We'll also be reformatting our undergraduate Diploma programme based on the new courses contained in the new undergraduate programmes.

Q. How is CARIMAC handling the recession?

A. CARIMAC is handling the recession as best we can given that we are a department of the university and essentially the core of what we do --which is the undergraduate programme-- depends on the university and its financing. Like every department and faculty we've been asked by the administration to be fairly prudent in how we spend money and make sure there is efficiency all around.

We've realised that we cannot allow [the recession] overtake us. We need to be much more competitive and aggressive. So even though we haven't got the physical facilities now to offer the new programmes we are trying to make use of spaces and facilities elsewhere so that the infrastructural constraints don't prevent us from going in the direction in which we need to head.

We're dealing with the recession by trying to arrange for our business unit, CARIMAC.com, to continue the work it's doing despite the recession to allow it to capitalise on a positive change in the economic environment.

Q. What are your thoughts on the research generated by the department?

A. There is a lot of work that we need to do to establish CARIMAC as a leading institution in research. Much good work has been done by CARIMAC staff and graduates at the postgraduate level. What we want to do --and this will be assisted by the new postgraduate programmes that we contemplate-- is increase research particularly within the Caribbean context in several new areas that are important to the expanding and very dynamic media and communication services. For example, we are keen on expanding research on digital media, media in general, journalism and marketing communication to complement the work that has been done and is still being done in other areas of communication.

Q. Do you have a wish list? Which item has the highest priority and why?

A. For CARIMAC, the top item on my wish list is a building along the lines of the plans that the architects and consultants have signed off on and for which we are awaiting financing. That building will allow us --at least for the next 15 to 20 years-- the physical infrastructure, the space and the facilities for us to achieve our aim of establishing ourselves and maintaining a position as being a globally competitive school of media and communication. That, to me, is where we want to be and I wish we could have been there yesterday.