Universities and schools
In the past, media professionals of Mali studied outside the country, mainly in Russia, France, Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, or were graduates of the Ecole Normal Supérieure (National Superior School of Mali - ENSup) and the Ecole Normale de l’Administration (ENA), both in Bamako. The liberalisation of the media sector has increased the number of press and audiovisual outlets very quickly, attracting a large number of job seekers wishing to become journalists or media professionals without having received any training. Less than 10 percent of active journalists in Mali are graduates of a journalism school, with consequences on the quality of their work. Despite the existence of a code of ethics since 1991, very few journalists comply with professional standards.
To meet the needs of the professionalism of media actors, some private universities have included Communication and Journalism in their curriculum. These include Université Privée Ahamed Baba (UPAB), Université Catholique de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (UCAO) and the Institut des Sciences Politiques Relations Internationales et Communications (ISPRIC). However these private initiatives have limited capacity and are unable to satisfy the demand of media professionals in the market. Also, the high cost of the university fees makes them unreachable for the majority of students.