Under the aegis of the Aga Khan University, the school is expected to be a hub of media excellence studies aiming at strengthening ethical media practices. The Its courses will be tailor made to serve new and old journalists as well. It The school is expected to open its doors to students in 2011.

A successful media businessman, the Aga Khan is the Chancellor of Aga Khan University. He made the announcement of the Graduate School of Media and Communications on March 18 at the opening of the Pan African Media Conference held in Nairobi to, among other things, commemorate Nation Media Group’s jubilee.

“The School will be driven by an absolute commitment to quality,” he told the delegates. It will also run a media forum “for conducting and disseminating cutting edge research that will help shape public communication in the decades ahead,” he said.

The Aga Khan emphasized that the approach to media will be interdisciplinary.
He said that a new generation of African media entrepreneurs will have to blend economic and media disciplines. The faculty to be hired will have to demonstrate excellence “excellence in journalistic practice, media ethics, law and social responsibility and media management.

Other requirements will be media, global and societal issues and new media and technology,” reported the Kampala-based the Daily Monitor newspaper (www.monitor.co.ug).

“Additionally, the school will cultivate and maintain a dynamic adjunct and visiting faculty cohort through partnerships with academic institutions across Africa and globally, drawing on the diverse array of international and regional media professionals based in Nairobi,” the paper said.