Over 50 per cent of students in the four-year Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) program at King’s leave before reaching third year.
According to data gathered annually on Dec. 1 from the King’s registrar’s office, the journalism program has fewer than 20 graduates each year. First-year classes range from 27 to 48 students.
The data found the largest drop in retention in the past five years occurred in the graduating class of 2025. In fall 2021, the class had 48 first-year students. Only 12 students made it to third year.
Liam Coady was one of the students in that class. He switched programs after his second year. Coady was drawn to King’s because of the journalism program’s reputation and multimedia reporting classes.
Once in the program, Coady found the first two years restrictive, especially considering the number of journalism electives students can take is capped at two.
“If you’re there specifically with the understanding that you’re doing a journalism degree, and you know that from your first year because you declared that from the get-go,” said Coady, “why not let kids branch out into journalism while they’re doing it?”
Unlike other programs at King’s, journalism students must declare their major as soon as they apply and are automatically placed in the honours program. In fourth year, rather than write a thesis, journalism students spend their first eight weeks working on their honours project – a 1500-word feature.
Mira Posluns had a similar experience to Coady. She started the journalism program in the fall of 2022, hoping to expand her print journalism skills and learn more about audio and video reporting. Yet, for Posluns, first-year fell flat.
“I think when I went in, I really expected to be learning new skills right away,” said Posluns.
Her passion for journalism started in high school, where she founded her school’s newspaper and started learning the basics of news writing.
At King’s, Posluns found that most of what she wanted to learn, like audio and video, wouldn’t be covered until later in the program.
Meanwhile, Posluns actively contributed to the sports section of The Dalhousie Gazette in her first year, working closely with the then-sports editor, Thomas Scott. Posluns said she learned more about writing styles and interviewing techniques through Scott’s feedback and mentorship than in the classroom.
Posluns switched out of journalism at the end of her first year. In her second year, she became the sports editor of the Gazette and wrote 25 articles throughout the 2023-24 school year.
“[At the time] I was thinking, ‘I’m getting so much from these experiences outside the classroom, and I know I’m not going to get to something like TV editing for so long. I don’t know if I can wait this out,’” said Posluns.
Fred Vallance-Jones, the director of journalism, said the department is aware of these concerns and working towards solutions. The program has been amid a complete curriculum revamp, which started shortly after Vallance-Jones became director in July 2022.
Student retention and recruitment are key considerations in the revamp. Vallance-Jones said there is a “laser focus on the student experience in terms of this curriculum change.”
The revamp process involves input from student representatives, external committee reviews, and surveys sent to current students, alumni, and students who have left the program. It will be a few more years before the new curriculum is implemented.
While he is unable to share specific curriculum details yet, Vallance-Jones said the program is aware of the complaints surrounding third-year choices, elective restrictions and the first-year structure.
“Here at King’s, we believe in journalism; we’re not just here to crank students through whatever they do,” said Vallance-Jones. “You know, we really believe this is a foundational pillar of democracy.”
