Universities and schools

More than 30 journalism schools are operational across Afghanistan. About 20 of them are public entities, under governmental universities, and almost 10 of them are private universities that run journalism schools too. Private journalism schools are providing studies for journalists of bachelor degree, as do all governmental journalism schools that are located outside of Kabul. The only university that provides a master degree in journalism is Kabul University, which is the oldest university in Afghanistan and was established in 1931. All governmental and non-governmental journalism schools are certified by the Afghanistan Ministry of Higher Education. Based on information provided via phone interview by a spokesperson of the ministry, around 1800 students are graduated annually from media schools across the country and more than 15 percent are female graduates.

There are two vocational institutes that provide a two-year diploma in media. One is the Kabul Journalism Institute, a governmental entity based in east of Kabul city. Established in 2016, it receives students through national entrance exams. The second one is Nai Media Institute, established in 2012 and is a private institute owned by Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan. Both institutes are also certified by the Afghan Ministry of Education.

Journalism schools within universities mainly focus on theoretical lessons. The Kabul Journalism Institute, the governmental institute, also provides only theoretical lessons. All universities’ journalism schools’ curricula belong to the 1970s and 1980s. The private schools are new but they use similar curricula as Kabul University, the old curricula. The only updated curriculum is that of Nai Media Institute, which was bought in 2012 from an Australian training company, Ahern Media and Training Pty Ltd.

Recently, some American universities started to affiliate with Afghanistan universities’ Journalism schools. The San José State University is affiliating with Kabul University to update their curricula and train their faculties. The same has started with some other universities through the main universities of Afghanistan, Herat University in the West, Nangarhar University in the East, Balkh University in the North and Qandahar University in the South.

It is worth mentioning that all universities have two departments of print media and electronic (TV and Radio) media. None of them has online media studies or sections.