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Media centre with Indian links to close down

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JULY 11. A prestigious university department with strong links with India is facing the axe due to low ratings in research assessment exercises at a time when higher education in Britain is increasingly being corporatised.

The 35-year-old Centre for Mass Communication Research (CMCR) at the University of Leicester, one of the oldest in the field of media studies, is to be closed shortly. Over the years, scores of Indian scholars and students have studied at the centre for masters and doctoral degrees.

Books written by leading figures at the CMCR such as those of Professor Annabelle Sreberny have been essential texts at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and other institutions in India.

Since its establishment in 1966, CMCR academics have been involved in several India-related studies and publications in association with Indian scholars.

The University of Leicester Vice-Chancellor, Robert Burgess, told The Guardian that the CMCR would be `re-structured'. It will effectively close, though most of its campus-based courses are to continue from other departments in the university. Dubbed as the "original hotbed'' of mass communications by the leading media expert, James Curran, it has been home to some of the most notable media theorists such as Annabelle Sreberny, Graham Murdock, Peter Golding and James Halloran.

The CMCR was one of the first to offer degrees in Mass Communications by distance learning. The distance learning unit is to be closed down and no new students will be accepted from the next academic year.

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