Ghana Institute of Journalism (UniMAC-GIJ)

Degrees offered

UniMAC-GIJ offers a two-year Diploma in Communication Studies, a three/four-year B.A. in Communication Studies, a two-year Top-Up B.A. for diploma graduates, and a 15-month intensive M.A. program. The Institute has been able to award its own degrees, diplomas, and certificates since receiving a presidential charter in August 2006.

Programs and emphasis

Programs train students in journalism, mass communication, advertising, and public relations, combining classroom instruction with practical newsroom training. The Institute's founding decree (1974) set its objectives as training young men and women in journalism and communication skills and organizing lectures, seminars, and practical training in the field.

History

Founded by the government of Kwame Nkrumah, the Ghana Institute of Journalism was officially opened on October 16, 1959, by Minister of Information and Broadcasting Kofi Baako, initially as a department of the Accra Technical Institute. Its first principal was Richard McMillan, retiring director of British Information Services in Ghana. The Institute moved to its present Ringway, Osu site in 1966, and was formally established by legislative instrument in 1974. In 2020, the Ghana Institute of Journalism was merged with the National Film and Television Institute and the Ghana Institute of Languages to form the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC), with GIJ continuing as a constituent institute, UniMAC-GIJ.

Key faculty and leadership

Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo: Rector, the Institute's sixteenth since its 1959 founding, in office since August 2018; previously professor of public relations and marketing at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.
Eric Opoku Mensah: Deputy Rector.
James Kwaku Asante: Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Media Studies.

Location and contact info

Address
32nd Gamel Abdul Nasser Road, Ringway, Osu
P.O. Box GP 667
Accra, Ghana
Phone
+233 302 228336
Email
info@gij.edu.gh
Website
https://gij.edu.gh