“Can Universities Make Good Journalists” was the question addressed in a 2013 action research project for an MA in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and a paper subsequently published in the April 2014 edition of Journalism Education. Interview with journalists, academic and students were integrated with academic literature on journalism and higher education to discuss whether a university education can develop qualities and behaviours such as curiosity, scepticism, tenacity and “news sense”. The project produced a model of skills, knowledge and qualities required of journalists today in to order to illuminate facilitate and develop discussion about the value of higher education.
Former BBC Radio Five Live, Newsbeat and Radio Four presenter Richard Evans teaches journalism at City University London. He’s reported at home and abroad for BBC radio and TV programmes and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.