Trent University students in the new Trent-Loyalist Journalism program are welcomed to Loyalist College by Dean of the School of Media, Arts and Design, Jane Harrison. The students have completed their first year at Trent and will work through the summer at Loyalist in an intensive eight-week introduction to the fundamentals of radio, television, newspaper, magazine and online media.

According to Karen Maki, director of Post-Secondary Partnerships at Trent, the Trent-Loyalist program is unique for the level of integration and the joint-major aspect of the program. “Students in this program can choose virtually any other Trent discipline as their joint major including Business, Media Studies, International Development, Environmental Sciences, English and more,” explains Ms. Maki.

Ms. Harrison agrees: “The combination of the rigours of an honours degree and the skill required to tell compelling stories to an audience will make our graduates desirable to a very demanding and ever-changing industry.”  

Students will participate in QNetNews, the student-produced community online news service at Loyalist, where a new 10,000 square foot media lab is being built for the students’ hands-on newsroom. Trent’s soon-to-be-created satellite lab will enable students to continue to participate in QNetNews from a distance.

The idea for the program had been in the works for several years before the joint major model was decided upon. “We had heard from industry that a college diploma on its own wasn’t enough, and a university degree on its own wasn’t enough. Industry wants to hire graduates with the combined college-level technical skills and university-level analytical, critical-thinking, and discipline-based skills. That was what led us to this model,” says Ms. Maki.