Is accreditation by the National Council for the Training of Journalists essential for university courses? Indeed, is it worthwhile any longer being an NCTJ-certified journalist?
Brian McNair challenged the orthodoxy by pulling Strathclyde University's journalism and creative writing degree out of the accreditation scheme in 2008.
As he explains in an AllMediaScotland blog, he found the scheme "structurally incompatible" with the degree course, and was also concerned at "the NCTJ's increasingly unrealistic demands on both staff and students."
"I think we replaced the NCTJ curriculum with something better," he argues, "journalism education focused on the high end skills of good writing, incisive analysis, rigorous research, strategic thinking, problem solving, story-telling, the sociological and cultural context within which journalism is made and consumed."
After a side-swipe at the need for shorthand - a key component of the NCTJ course - he also contests the relevance of the public affairs and media law modules.
McNair, who was professor of journalism at Strathclyde until taking up a similar position at the University of Queensland in Australia, says that journalists of the future, need
talent, imagination, a spirit of independence, an understanding of IT and social networking and their impact on media, culture and society in general; everything in short, that the NCTJ curriculum squeezed out with its relentless stress on externally-decreed learning by rote.
And here's his concluding message:
The old world of print journalism in which the NCTJ was formed is passing into history, replaced by content-generating users, citizen journalists and all those journalistic wannabees who make up the globalised, digitised public sphere in the 21st century.
Well, I ought to say that journalism courses at City University London - where I teach - are not accredited either. And many of our students certainly go on to succeed in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio.
But I'd guess that McNair's gauntlet will be picked up by the NCTJ's energetic chief executive, Joanne Butcher. And some of its board members - who include Kim Fletcher, Bob Satchwell, Alan Geere and Chris Elliott - may also take a dim view of the McNair viewpoint.
Let battle commence!
