Quality Education for the Job Market
Quality Education for the Job Market
MCFA divided the student's curriculum into three levels as follows:
At level one of the majors:
MIT 200 Business Software Applications, COM 214 Digital Application Skills, and MAT 220 Mathematics for Liberal Arts prepares you to acquire the necessary numerical and digital applications that are commonly used in a working environment.
Students are also provided at this level a set of core and major courses that prepare them to have some fundamental theoretical approaches in the field of mass communication. Also, they are expected to cover a selection of introductory courses on several dimensions of mass communication for the first year to acquire those transferable professional skills in the areas of photography, cinematography, mediated performance, speech communication, and public relations.
As well, students will have a vital opportunity, through ENG 201 English Communication Skills I and ARB 201 Arabic Communication Skills I, for polishing and refining their writing skills and anchoring them in academic reading through the close analysis of key mass communication texts and theory. In COM 230, students will be set to have the first level of study into researching communication. By this, they will be trained on identifying the research skills required to conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses and synthesis in the field of media and cultural industries.
At Level Two of the majors:
the courses become focused on the major’s requirements in each field of study offered in the faculty of MCFA. Each of them covers those core professional skills that are expected of the graduate students by the industry. The range of major courses enables the student to have a command on theory, however, in the context of professional practice. There is a minimum of 65% of the major courses that are geared in the curriculum for level two to equip students for work in the industry. JDM 220 Reporting Practices, APR 320 Digital Design and Graphics for Mass Communication, and RTV 220 Television and Radio Broadcasting are few examples of the course's role in enabling students to have a sound understanding and hands-on experience to certain dimensions of work in the media and cultural industries.
Students at Level Two will also be expected to cover a three-credit course, APR 497 Professional Placement, by securing a job in one of the media or cultural organizations that match their interest and area of specialism. This is a crucial step at Level Two to attain all the C.V., profiling, interviewing skills necessary for them to obtain a professional placement and be in a confident position to immerse into the dynamics of the real work environment. By the end of the professional placement, students should deliver a report on their work experience and present their findings of it to their classmates and Course Instructor.
The faculty will be there to help assist students in identifying both the institutions that are ready to receive students on work placement and the skills that optimize their opportunity to get a place in the selected institution for work.
At Level Three of the majors:
however, students are expected to have already acquired the necessary knowledge and skills from the previous Level One and Level Two in different fields of mass communication.
Students at Level Three are well prepared to take on board more integrative and research-based specialism in a particular area of interest. The courses involve lengthy research, known as a capstone project, and/or a media production to help them understand and have the experience of researching methodically a particular area in mass communication.
Having courses of APR 430 Advanced Researching in an area of specialism, APR 499 Specialism Capstone Project as well as APR 310 to APR 499 Technical Electives will enable students to investigate different methods and approaches in mass communication research, and will allow them to develop independently their skills in research and analysis that are extensively required, as set by the ‘employability curriculum’, from any prospective person to go to a working environment.
In these courses, students pursue a topic of interest to them in detail with support from lecturers via seminar workshops and individual tuition.