Exhibit JC42 - The Leveson Inquiry

For Distribution to CPsThe University of London Diplo’ma for Journalism: The Educational Background and Aims ofthe Coursestory that could only have been written if you’d got some idea of whateconomics is all about. Nobody looked at it that way and I don’t think wehad any feeling that this really mattered to our success as journalists. Andevery subject in the academic course should be done that way, for astart. ’76Indeed, until 1935, students had attended the same lecturers as studentson ordinary degree courses offered at the University taking the samesubjects. After 1937 all the compulsory subjects had specially-arrangedlectures77Proposed New Syllabus for 1940 StartWith the re-organised course under King’s College control there existeda College Journalism Committee, which met every term, prior to theUniversity Journalism Committee meetings. Dr. Harrison’s copy of theagenda for the meeting held on 21 ’t January, 1938, TM gives his detailedthoughts, committed to paper, including the topic: ’the general relation ofacademic and professional subjects with particular reference to EnglishComposition and History... who is responsible for coordinating theinstruction b_etween the Practical and the Theoretical? ’79Under the ’History’ Harrison expressed his concern at the lack ofpersonal contact between lecturers and students with no tutorials allowed.The lectures were ’frankly unsatisfactory’ and he suggested that the’department of journalism have its own history lectures. ’8°Dr. Harrison also wanted the university to recognize the validity ofjournalism students studying ’current events and their origins’ as part of thecourse - and this sounds like a refrain from earlier attempts at journalismeducation. (See Appendix II Oral Examinations, item 7). The outcome wasyet another sub-committee consisting of Harrison, Gaitskell, and RogerFulford. They met on October 21 ’t, 1938, and issued an amended versionfor the next full meeting of the King’s College Journalism Committee onNovember 1 ’t, 1938.A view often expressed about the Diploma, by post-war critics, refers toits ’dubious academic credentials. ’81 Yet, as we have seen, Diplomastudents for many .years had no special lectures, attending those providedfor under-graduates on Honours courses. One result of this subcommitteemust have surprised the College lecturers: the Journalism students took asmany exam papers for their two-year Diplomas as candidates for full threeyearHonours degrees. 82 If anything, the University should be criticised fornot being aware of this fact. To criticize the course’s ’dubious academiccredentials’ reflects both the ignorance and partisan nature of many suchcriticisms. The amount of work expected of Diploma students might gosome way to explaining why there was a 50 per cent failure rate inPrinciples of Criticism and Social and Economic Structure papers. In thewords of the memorandum: ’It would thus appear that the syllabus is tooheavy and needs revising, especially when it is remembers that students inArt take only four subjects for the Intermediate Arts, and three for theGeneral Degree.’94MOD100051265