Bhubaneswar: A Jesuit university based in Bhubaneswar will open a school of communication from the next academic year.
Xavier School of Communications (XCOMM) attached to Xavier University, Bhubaneswar (XUB,) will initially offer masters in communication, post graduate diplomas in film and television production and broadcast journalism along with Bachelors of Science in Mass Communication. Later it will add online media course, XCOMM dean Jesuit Fr. Lourduraj Ignacimuthu told Matters India.
He said they will start the classes from July 2.
Online registration is on for all the courses. The priest said students can visit the website www.xub.edu.in for registration and the department will conduct interviews through Skype.
XCOMM studio has the state of the art facilities. The studios house professional audio studio, voice booth, Online TV control room and a studio floor of 1,600 Sq. ft. It has a specially designed photography room and a room for master edit-suites.
The students will have access to 10 Apple edit suites and 10 Dell workstations for working on adobe related software. The broadcast journalism students will have online TV production facilities with a teleprompter. The entire studio is sound proofed professionally. The classrooms are fitted with Bose audio system and LED projectors.
Resident faculties have been recruited and they have joined XCOMM already. Since the courses are professional in nature, industry tie-up is a must to give a student a professional environment to practice his skills. So Xavier School of Communications has entered into a tie-up with OTV, which has 80 percent of the viewership in Odisha. OTV has been generous to come forward to support the cause of training media professionals in Odisha.
The strategic advisory body is a new idea. The advisory body has some big names in the field of journalism, broadcast, film and advertising. The advisory body will advise the school with regard to syllabi from the point of view of media industry and they will participate annually in a yearly conference and share with the students their ideas and experiences, Father Raj said.
Xavier University intends to play a major role in future in training media professionals in the country.
Jesuit Fr. Paul Fernandes is the vice chancellor and the brain behind this new initiative.