Malović: It is a crime to abolish the journalism department

In recent years, the administration of the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN) has not understood the role of that university unit, especially the study of journalism, said Professor Stjepan Malović, assessing that canceling that study program would be a crime.

For years, Malović was involved in several courses in the Journalism study program at the FPN, and he ended his cooperation with the Podgorica FPN last year.

The University of Montenegro intends to restructure study programs at FPN and in the future there should be three study programs - political science, communication science and social policy and social work.

"My impression is that in recent years the administration did not understand the role of the faculty, especially the study of journalism. The study is not only teaching, but something much, much broader. It is symptomatic that in Montenegro there are two scientific journals and two international conferences in this field that they are successfully developing, but they do not have real cooperation with the FPN," Malović told the Mina agency.

According to him, Montenegro is too small a country to waste its forces like that.

Malović believes that Montenegro has extremely capable journalists and public relations experts who have lost their way on the media scene, which, he believes, is a great pity.

"They are a potential for the development of the study. And the students of the Journalism Studies are, according to my experiences, and I know the educational institutions in the area of ​​the former Yugoslavia quite well, extremely motivated," he said.

As Malović added, they read, participate in classes, want to learn, have their own views that they defend uncompromisingly.

"It is a crime to abolish studies and make it impossible for this quality of a society to be suppressed due to bureaucratic decisions," he said.

Malović believes that the impression of those who think that the quality of teaching and education at FPN has declined is good, adding that the reason is not that FPN is a new unit, because at the beginning of its work, as he said, it was successful.

"Therefore, the answer should be sought in internal forces, but also in an unusual attitude of the Senate of the University of Montenegro towards FPN. Science can be bureaucratized to the extent that some activities are completely impossible. This is exactly what the Senate did, setting up incomprehensible administrative obstacles," he assessed. is he.

Malović believes that abolishing the FPN would be very bad, stating that modern education systems must "cover" all areas, and the FPN "covers" political science, journalism, international relations, and social work.

"All these areas are at the center of social movements. A university that does not cover these areas is not scientifically based and shows a lack of understanding of social and scientific trends. Instead of abolishing it, it is necessary to stimulate young, domestic forces that can develop scientific and teaching work," he said.

Speaking about the termination of cooperation with FPN, Malović said that in long-term cooperation there are ups and downs.

"People in leading positions are changing, young people are getting older, there are new opportunities in teaching, science is improving, new, young scientists are developing. External collaborators, like me, notice this in a different way than permanent employees," he said. .

Malović said that he lived through the time of the rise when the dean of FPN was Srđan Darmanović, who, he believes, had a special gift to gather and stimulate associates.

"Unfortunately, after him, the FPN began a downward trajectory. There were frictions, struggles for leadership, conflicts among teachers. Teaching was no longer at the same level," said Malović.

According to him, the master's degree in journalism, which brought together the flower of Montenegrin journalists and PR professionals, has quietly disappeared.

"Doctoral studies faced incomprehensible obstacles set by the Senate of the University. Savings measures were the justification for canceling cooperation with external professors. All this affected me as well, although, along with two or three teachers, I remained the last Mohican - a visiting professor. But , it was no longer an environment that stimulated work," said Malović.

As he said, given that young people do not grow on the lawn, nor can they develop on their own, a program should be created in which quality forces will be hired for them in the form of visiting professors and at the same time send young people for education at world universities.

He said that every faculty is worth as much as the quality teachers who work there.

"Science has no borders, so the more reputable professors there are, domestic as well as visiting, the better. Professors must have the conditions not only for teaching, but also for scientific work. Journals, conferences, research, publishing: all this is important for the work of the faculty", said Malović.

According to him, young institutions must rely on visiting professors, because they do not have their own, but at the same time they must develop, with the help of visiting professors, their young forces.

That, as he said, was missing.

"I can immodestly say that I mentored the only doctoral thesis in journalism at the University that was successfully defended, and that I mentored three theses that are extremely difficult to do and I am afraid that the candidates will have great difficulties. Two more PhDs, one of which I also mentored , were defended in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And that's all," said Malović.

As he said, even the master's theses were stopped after the initial successes.

"It's hard to do something in such a situation, and at the same time give up external collaborators with the explanation that they cost too much".