Almost a decade ago, when Advertising and Communication (better known as Mass Communication) courses in India had few takers, little did one know of the impact that this field would create in such a short span of time! Today, when the entire mass communication is taking rapid strides in various areas of operations, what Marshall McLuhan predicted several years ago, has become a reality. The world has, indeed, become a ‘global village’.

Today, the Indian market is one of the faster growing corporate hubs of the world. Various multinational companies prefer Indian market for their rapid expansion. The turnover is expected to reach USD 1.8 trillion by 2015 globally and Asian countries are expected to contribute greatly into it. In this given situation, Advertising and Communication, together, help create demand, promote marketing system and boost economic growth. Advertising plays a critical role in marketing of their products. And Communication, the other vital aspect of mass communication creates the right image for the company and its products.

Apart from the world of products, closely knit, but distinct, is the world of entertainment. In this world of colours is a passion for creating myriads of images with sound that is transmitted through ever-growing technology to every household that holds a TV. And this industry holds powerful possibilities of growth for those who are qualified to handle the relevant activities. And then there are newspapers, radio, cinema and many more, where the world of advertising and communication expands every day like never before.

Although scintillating and rewarding it demands a lot of time, energy and hard work from one who is in it. So one must have the passion to defeat deadlines and ready to work as it comes - at any time of the day or night. There is also peer pressure and gender bias, which need to be dealt with good work and sound knowledge.

In this fast moving lucrative and visible markets there has been consistent growth in career opportunities. Consequently, with more and more competition for promotions and higher pay scales, the market has increasingly impacted various spheres of education in India. This is because education in India is seen as leverage for upward social mobility. Good education is a stepping stone to a high-flying career.

According to the survey that has been conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) regarding the India education Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and such other related factors, the higher education sector in India has witnessed a substantial extent of growth in the Growth Enrolment Ratio (GER) between 2009 and 2010. The increase in the rate has touched the 17.25% mark in comparison to 12.5% which was the growth rate in 2008-2009. Higher education in India quantitatively ranks third in the world after China and the US. As of 2009, India had 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act and 33 institutes which are of national importance. Other institutions included 16000 colleges, including 1800 exclusive women's colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions. More than 100 colleges offer Mass Communication courses at the degree or post-graduate diploma levels.

In Mass Communication, however, higher education is not sought after. It is more of an academic option. The overview is explained ahead.

Although there is no data available from UGC or the Ministry of HRD on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) of UNDP, UGC has been involved in the empowerment of women through education for several years.

In order to promote Women’s Studies and to translate the component of empowerment of women, the University Grants Commission has since been playing a significant role in the venture through the creation of Centres for Women’s Studies (CWS) by implementation of a scheme on ‘Development of Women Studies in Indian Universities and Colleges’. These Centres in the University system have been functioning for about two decades, since 1986 and have practically succeeded in playing an interventionist role by initiating gender perspective in many domains in generation of knowledge; in the policy designs and practice, etc. The Women’s Studies Centres were designed to act as catalysts for promoting and strengthening women’s studies through teaching, research, curriculum, field and extension work, training and continuing education, etc.

UGC had also identified the following objectives to meet in its XIth five year plan for women/higher education in India:

• To increase women’s participation in education
• Construction of 2000 girls’ hostels
• Support to girl students with scholarships/fellowships, remedial coaching and other measures
• Plan allocation of almost Rs 85000 crores in higher education
• Increase GER by 5% and removal of gender disparities
• Construction of women’s hostels in 500 polytechnics
• 100 women’s hostels would be sanctioned in higher educational institutions located in districts with significant population of weaker sections and minorities

The objectives are significant as there has been phenomenal expansion of educational opportunities for women and more so in higher education. Women’s education at the university-both college levels has been diversified and reoriented in tune with the changing requirements of the society, industry and trade.

Also, it has been found that women, in Mass Communication, as in other fields, who enter higher education at the undergraduate level, move onto the next two levels, namely, the graduate and research level. In other words, their transition from one level to another has increased, which highlights their staying power. The number of women enrolled in institutions of higher education has increased over time. Of course, the percentages are higher in states where women have better representation in education and in which higher education facilities have expanded in recent years.

The steps chosen by UGC will decidedly support women who opt for higher education in Mass Communication. This is primarily because there is a lot of movement in this profession and travel is an integral part of the activity. With a place of stay, an accessible institution and qualified professors to impart the knowledge, is surely a workable option.

Historically, women have found better numbers in subjects relating to Arts, Human Sciences or less strenuous professional courses. However, with emphasis on women’s education and with more opportunities, women have come in greater numbers to join various courses, including those that were male bastions earlier.

In this process of evolution, Mass Communication has metamorphosed into a specialized field. Till some years back, degree in Mass Communication was not an eligibility to join any media. A person with an English Honors degree or Economics Honors degree with an interest in current affairs was easily accorded the position of a journalist or sub-editor in a newspaper. If somebody has an artistic bent of mind and a graduate, the road to an advertising agency used to be easy for the person. But the scene has undergone a sea change today. Only students with relevant degrees are considered.

Therefore, under-graduate courses in Mass Communication and various post-graduate diploma and certificate courses are jostling for space in the education market in India. In this fiercely competitive scenario, higher education in Mass Communication seems to be evolving with a purpose and with a different tag to it. This is mostly to keep ahead of peers and remain at the top-of-the-line of contenders for better positions for internal growth in an organisation or for the job market.

The first institute to provide a formal education in the field of Mass Communication is the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). Located in the JNU campus, it was set up by the government in 1965. In 1966 it was turned into an autonomous Institution under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It has gone on to offer a number of courses relating to different Media.

In the meanwhile, UGC came out with a report of the Curriculum Development Committee on Mass Communication for Indian universities. The Report has dealt exhaustively with the post graduate courses, with the structure, eligibility criteria, qualifications of teachers, their numbers, amongst others, to give an Institution the basic infrastructure to get the post graduate course going.

The course structure gives, to the last detail, each of the subjects in each of the semesters, alongwith the practicals and the evaluation systems.

UGC also suggests a Bridge Course in Mass Communication so that a student, who has not studied Mass Communication subjects at under-graduate level, can easily join the post-graduate course in Mass Communication with a certain level of knowledge and proficiency in the subject. The Universities may opt to introduce such a bridge course as and when they feel appropriate and necessary. The proposed Bridge Course in Mass Communication will consist of three papers: (a) principles of communication, (b) mass communication media and (c) applied mass communication. It then goes on to give details of the design of the course.

Even today, the universities and institutes offering courses in mass communication at the post-graduation level are few. Apart from IIMC, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre of Jamia Millia Islamia University and Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune are the more prominent institutes that offer Masters in this course. But they have limited seats. To select the best candidates, universities conduct written examination. A shortlisted student is asked to appear for the interview, which is the basis of his final selection.

There are several other universities that offer the post graduate diploma courses in Advertising and Communication these days.

Privatisation of education has increased the intake capacity of specific kind of professional education; especially skill oriented undergraduate degrees, which lead to a career and a job. Some well known private institutions have also started such diploma courses in Advertising and Communication, mainly because they find that these professional courses are more popular and lucrative. In fact, many institutions run unaccredited courses as there is no legislation strong enough to ensure legal action against them. Quality assurance mechanism has failed to stop misrepresentations and malpractices in higher education. At the same time regulatory bodies have been ineffective, specifically in the case of deemed-universities. In this context of lack of solid quality assurance mechanism, institutions need to step-up and set higher standards of self-regulation.

For a young discipline in which most researchers nowadays have their background solely in Media and Communication Research and where contacts with early media research and work in neighbouring disciplines are few, “trends” can have an exceedingly strong impact and may lead to widespread conformism. Some critics have lamented the lack of historical perspectives in much of contemporary Media and Communication Research. The wheel has been re-invented, time and again. Researchers tend to develop a nose for trends and for what is politically correct. In this way it is entirely possible for a field of research to be characterised at once by conformism and multidisciplinary or, perhaps more aptly, eclecticism.

Media and communication researchers borrow theories, perspectives and methods from other disciplines. Many doctoral dissertations of recent vintage refer – often without much reflection – to a handful of theories garnered from more general cultural and social theory. The works take their inspiration from one, often even several methodologies, without pausing to consider that methods, too, are founded on basic assumptions about the nature of the object to be explored.

The debate is also on whether the researchers are far-removed from ground reality where the market forces apply and whether they are in a position to draw useful results.

To sum up, there is a beautiful piece in the Report of the Committee on India Vision 2020, Planning Commission, which is put forward here.

The report quotes Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in one of his poems where he pens: ‘Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action…’

And the Committee had interpreted it as: ‘Education, innovation and creativity are the ultimate driving forces for the continuous advancement of scientific knowledge and material accomplishment.’

Women in Mass Communication have for long dealt with innovation and creativity, and now with higher education giving them the knowledge power, optimal empowerment is but a matter of time.

Purobi Ghosh Mohan
WGU, Mumbai