Hence, the purpose of the School is to equip students with the analytical tools to confront the world of communication, in the following ways:

Our School of Media was born in the academic year 2023-24 with two bachelor’s programmes. We offer a 3-year BA and a 4-year BA (Hons.) in Journalism and Mass Communication, and a 4-year BTech in Computation and Media. With the application of digital technology, the media and related industries have been experiencing unprecedented growth. The introduction of mediated communication for the public at large has meant that this growth has become a mass movement among “media prosumers”—consumers who are also producers of media texts. Since everyone equipped with a smartphone is a potential media prosumer, the practice of superior mediated communication defines its contours. This is not merely a technological change but a sociological one. To that end, our BA and BTech. programmes recognize digital technology as an inevitable and integral part of mediated communication today and in time to come.

This exciting time also presents several challenges. The ever-evolving field of mass communication now, more than ever before, needs an all-round understanding of technology and sociology, between message and its construction. This convergence of information, entertainment, opinion, promotion and distribution presents an exciting new cornucopia of activities bundled together.

There is also convergence in another way. In addition to a steady demand for professionals in the more conventional roles in news, entertainment, and the allied areas of advertising and public relations, there is an increasing demand for digital journalists, content creators and digital marketing professionals. Legacy media platforms are investing heavily on the digital side of their businesses. Other industries, too, are investing in creating or recasting media rooms in digitized forms, from which internal and external communication and corporate storytelling occurs. The ability to understand, delineate and control each of these activities distinguishes the media and communication professional from a prosumer.

To that end, our programmes integrate all that is needed in this new and evolving ecosystem to deliver academically sound, research-oriented, practically trained graduates. You will gain exposure to cutting-edge developments, both in technology and techniques of creating content and its delivery for the functions of news, entertainment, PR, advertising, corporate communication, and digital platforms.

In 2024, we have added a Ph.D. programme in Media and Communication. Master’s programmes in journalism, mass communication, and communication management will be introduced in 2025.

Enabling the practical side of learning are our three digital studios: (i) a large floor with two sets including a production control room (PCR), a greenscreen set, a conventional set, and a conveniently styled gallery-seating space; (ii) an audio studio; and (iii) an immersive media studio floor with cyclorama and other paraphernalia for such exciting productions as music videos.

At the School of Media, it is our endeavour to see learning as a joint venture between the student and the institution. How a student peels an onion ring, going deeper into the funnel of learning, must be demonstrated by linking concepts to practice. Using this process, our courses are designed around student-centric learning processes and competency outcomes of three dimensions—conceptual, practical/professional, and ethical.

Through the period of a student’s journey, we will introduce a variety of learning mechanisms and tools, including classes, laboratory work, independent and field work, library, guest interactions, and self-discovery. However, the student will quickly recognize the complexities in the practice and learn to problematize practices while developing an increasingly firm grip on fundamental concepts of the functions of journalism, media production and communication management. It is this blend that makes our graduates technologically strong and ethically sound, conceptually clear and practically adept.

Exposing students to eclectic voices is an important part of their learning. Academic, institutional, and industry partnerships include reputed institutions and organizations from around the world. The student’s journey will be peppered with guest visits and demonstrations, field visits and internships. We expect the student to have fun while being serious-minded, relish hard work while not losing out on the enjoyment of life’s normal experiences.

The curriculum has been prepared with the student’s journey in focus. How does a student navigate the path to the world of practice? That is the fundamental pedagogic question we seek to answer; we believe the answer lies in taking the student through increasingly complex units of knowledge. Hence, amidst the cornucopia of coursework lie clearly focused pipelines for each strand. Faculty members are empowered at the School of Media to bring their philosophies, perspectives, and content. Our institution welcomes and encourages the use of individual strengths and thought. Students will receive specific syllabi with textbooks (if any) and indications of reading material at the beginning of each course.

We will employ the highest standards to develop and nurture qualities needed for a student to be a changemaker. The input is carefully constructed keeping in mind the demands of industries and businesses, as well as the needs of our societies, to generate a conceptually, ethically, practically and behaviourally consummate graduate who is aware of the rights, responsibilities and privileges of an educated and communicative citizen. Special emphasis will be laid on digital and emerging media technologies as we further update the institution on the basis of technological and sociological developments.
Programme goals. The objectives of our programmes are heavily centred around the learner.

Thus, competency-building is the fulcrum of the collaborative interface between the School of Media and the student. The various demonstrable elements of these competencies perform a critical role not only for a student in the commitment to their role and exercise of responsible agency, but also for the institution in its commitment to the student. To us, competency is not to be defined in narrow curricular or practical success terms, but as the development of a personality that is professionally, critically, and ethically superior—thinking problem-solving researchers and professionals who can rethink paradigms and not become cookie-cutter bench-warmers.

The tripod of competencies. As a derivation from the above philosophical grounding, each of our programmes emerge as a marker, a demonstration of the following competencies—in combination—that will define and test this pursuit:

Furthermore, competency is a changemaking methodology, which goes well beyond the development of skills alone. It is the ability to adapt with a combination of acquired strengths and learnt behaviour. That is why we are convinced that the building of skills must necessarily accompany the construction of other attitudes that both enable and moderate our practices. The tripodic combination of competencies as described above is also individual. To that end, we believe it is imperative to keep our objectives student-centric and nurture individuals-in-societies—that is, individuals who are grounded in the governance of various industrial and sociocultural communities.
Our approach is multi-pronged in the sense that the student must be prepared both in and out of classrooms. Some forms this would take would bridge traditionally disparate paradigms:

Two approaches that can sustain the University head and shoulders above the normal fare we observe around us. There are several methodological ‘firsts’ that the University would have. A broader philosophy of approaching academics as a student-centric endeavour rather than just a set of tasks for us to accomplish will go a long way in establishing the University as a pioneer in disruptive methods in higher education. This by corollary entails a student-centric vision, mission, plan, and pedagogy. How do we help a student achieve his/her professional objectives?

The approaches I have explained below are needed for the much-talked-about (yet elusive!) excellence in higher education per se. In communication, I believe they are both critical, but I suspect their relevance can easily be mapped onto other fields. As you may observe from these approaches, the pedagogy, or the “how”, has precedence over the content, or the “what” of higher education.

First, we ask ourselves what the end objective of a student’s tenure with us is. We may assume it is gainful employment, either in the industry or self-employment, through a combination of conceptual and field exposure, theory-application and practical output.

Second, we identify what approaches we must adopt to fulfil that objective. In short, our endeavour must be to adopt methodological approaches that facilitate a student to transform into a responsible professional with a researcher’s mind.

• Newspaper newsrooms and production units
• Digital newsrooms and production units
• Television newsrooms and production units
• Television show production houses
• Digital production and digital marketing agencies
• Digital film production housesMedia and film marketing agencies
• Advertising agencies
• Public relations consultancies
• Corporate communication divisions
• Event management
• Digital agencies
• Game design studios
• Editing and FX studios

Mahindra University has numerous global partnerships around the world, both with top industries and with reputed universities. Some of them entail short-term curated courses to be taken on the global campuses, while others may be longer-term collaborative courses. Some examples are our partnerships with the University of Florida and Virginia Tech in the USA, La Trobe University in Australia, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in Germany, and École Centrale of France.

School of Media students may take advantage of our collaborative initiatives. For example, our students can join the cohort that travels to Cornell University, a top Ivy League university in the US to take a four-week programme in media entrepreneurship. The package also includes an educational tour to New York City, and cultural programmes.

School of Media also has struck a working partnership with Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Students will be guided to take specific courses in the College of Arts and Media there.

Our course plan is designed to enable this and many other global exposure opportunities for our students. For example, the final semester may be taken off-campus since much of it comprises projects, and students may also take one or two online courses in that semester. Often, internally and externally funded fellowships and scholarships are available to pursue courses or full programmes in international campuses.