Census charts the world's journalism education programmes

There are currently 2,338 journalism education programmes in the world, according to census figures released today.

The stats from the World Journalism Education Census, visualised using Many Eyes, suggest that 29.56 per cent of all journalism programmes and education centres (691) are in North America. Asia hosts 645 programmes, while Europe is home to 530.

The census, which counts centres of journalism training rather than individual degree courses, included: higher education-affiliated courses; practitioner and privately-operated education programmes, whose quality can be verified; and finally courses that are being run, but whose quality has not been verified.

According to today's statistics, there are 99 such programmes in the UK, 70 in Germany and 53 in France. Outside of Europe China operates 104 programmes, according to the census, while Australia has 34.

Initial figures from the census released in 2007 suggested that there were 1,859 journalism education programmes in the world. This rose to 2,487 in 2008, the second year of the census project.

"A number of challenges already have been revealed by the effort - challenges of how journalism education should be defined, challenges having to do with technology change and challenges of costs, reliable contact information, varying financial support. However, developing a basic database and census of journalism education should give educators and scholars an important tool in better understanding how journalism is taught and what can be done to improve journalism education throughout the world," says Charles Self, director of the University of Oklahoma's Institute for Research and Training, on the census' website.

The figures, released to coincide with this week's World Journalism Education Congress, are part of the first World Journalism Education Census from the World Journalism Education Council, which represents 29 journalism training and academic associations across the world. The project received backing from the Knight Foundation and was carried out by the Institute for Research and Training at the University of Oklahoma.

The census is still collecting information about journalism programmes worldwide. New entries can be submitted at this link.

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