Exhibit JC42 - The Leveson Inquiry

For Distribution to CPsThe Emergence and Development of Education for Journalism in Britain: John ChurtonCollins and the Birmingham University Scheme for Educating Journalistsqueried the value of traditional degrees whose products, when they got tothe Board, knew nothing about educational history. 7°London University ProposalsHumbertsone, like Professor Churton Collins a year earlier, thought itwas the duty of the universities to consider the needs of special classes.Just as London University offered classes in engineering, so it might beable to provide a two-year course something like the B.Sc degree ineconomics at the London School of Economics, which allowedundergraduates to study modern, instead of medieval, history.This was the impetus that the Institute had hitherto lacked: thewillingness of a University to actually sit down and discuss what wasneeded. By the Spring of 1910 Mr Frederick Miller, (1863-1924) assistanteditor of the Daily Telegraph, was able to announce details of discussionsthat had been held with London University. A two-year curriculum forstudents between 17 and 21 would provide an academic and technicaltraining combined with practical experience to be gained by running aUniversity newspaper. There would be between 20 to 30 subjects forstudents to choose from and it would be possible to progress from theDiploma to a BA or BSc degree in their faculty. Enrolment would be 20students and staff would include a ’full-time Director to look after theefficient training of the students. ’71 This would include classes in the law oflibel, precis-writing and condensation of reports, although the suggestionwas put that these should be organized by journalists. (See Appendices Xaand Xb)Mr A.J. Mundella (1859-1933), another member of the IoJ, had assistedMr Miller and Mr Humberstone in their discussions, and was able to reportthat they might expect financial support from the London County Council aswell as the Board of Education, and ’other financial benefactors.., privateas well as institutional - like the City of London. ’72Although the ’Technical Course’ was subtitled ’Suggestions for furtherConsideration’ most journalists would have been satisfied by the elementsrepresented therein: ’Journalistic Shorthand, Press Law, Principles ofDescriptive Reporting, Practical Reporting, Parliamentary Procedure’, toname a few (See Appendix Xb.). Whether the proposed morning sessionsin journalism with a first hour lecture followed by practical work would havefitted in with all the other, academic, lectures does not appear to have beendiscussed.The implications for journalism were discussed at later meetings of theInstitute in 1910, and Sir Robert Donald, editor of the Daily Chronicle, madetwo points: firstly: ’... we need classes or schools of journalism which giveprominence to the training and development of the journalist as a writer...the ability to express in simple, clear and direct language the purpose ofthe writer,’ secondly, apart from requiring a sense of public du~: ’thejournalist must be able to sift facts quickly and present them clearly.Another editor, A.G. Gardiner appointed editor of the .Daily News at 36,shared Donald’s dislike of the technical training (saying there were too fewgraduates of English in journalism) being done in the University. Yet there52MOD100051223