KIJAC MISSION

Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication

KIJAC

The Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication (KIJAC) is the first institute of a kind in the Southeast Europe established with the purpose of providing quality journalism education in Master’s level for students and media practitioners from the region and beyond.

The mission of the institute is to contribute in the transformation of the media sector through enabling students and media practitioners from the region to enhance their professional skills and advance the theoretical base of their understanding of the role and
the challenges of the media in a democratic society.

Established in 2005, KIJAC’s two-year Master’s program, enables students to explore the profession of journalism through employing state-of-the-art digital technologies, guided by both staff lecturers and various international lecturers, most of them seasoned international journalists with strong background from news organizations such as British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the Daily Telegraph, TIME Magazine, etc.

The combination of rich and diverse academic backgrounds between local and international lecturers at KIJAC provides an important intellectual agent that assists enormously in broadening of the views of KIJAC students on global/local role of the media, professional trends and current academic developments.

Scholars from The Cardiff University School of Journalism and Media Studies (JOMEC), Wales UK, The Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication (GSJC), Norway, The College of Journalism and Mass Communications (UNL) Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, and other journalism schools worldwide guide KIJAC students in their quest to understand the role of media and journalism in a functioning democracy. Essential topics for obtaining such an understanding range from Media Ethics and Law, to Cultural Studies and Human Rights.

Parallel to offering quality education for its students KIJAC continues to enable a number of Kosovo scholars, most of whom are teaching staff, to pursue different professional training programs, Master’s and PhD studies at acknowledged universities worldwide to ensure their professional upgrading and to establish the grounds for KIJAC as a key point of reference for journalism and media studies in the region in the future.

Since its establishment, KIJAC has maintained a close relationship with active journalists, editors, scholars and media stakeholders in both local and regional media. Moreover, over the past two years, KIJAC has also introduces its capacities as an intermediary in establishing contacts and exchange of experience between local, regional and international professionals through hosting a set of international and regional round-tables and conferences on subjects relevant to the media and societies in the region.

KIJAC will continue to play such a role even in the future and would work to strengthen its role as a professional and academic meeting point.