Journalism school a waste of money?

In about a month I will finally graduate from 5 years at university.

Yet tonight, for the first time, I started questioning what it might really be worth.

My Journalism degree alone cost my parents a whopping $AUD 7518.60 (not including student union fees before Voluntary Student Unionism came in force, and textbooks, which I paid for myself, or the huge cost of letting me go on exchange in 2008. I shudder to think what the other degree cost them). At the time of writing, that's the equivalent of £3 688.97, USD 5,402.86 and €4,106.45.

...Pause for gaping mouths to close...

It's an age-old debate: can 'Journalism' ever be truly 'taught'?

Every Journalism student has come across at least one successful journalist from the old school o' hard knocks, coffee mug in hand and notepad at the ready. He (it's usually a 'he') poo-poohs the notion of 'Journalism school' (always spoken with a wry smile and a sarcastic tone), explaining that he got to where he was by clinging to his street smarts, raw talent and sheer luck.

And for every one of those there is another suited up, slicked back journo with 20 years of contacts who's rapid-fire thought pattern betrays his smooth, laid back demeanour that comes only from the reassurance that the combination of all that education and experience and a full-time job can bring.

Given the current climate (That must be the world's most over-used phrase of the century) I'm not the only one thinking about this. The debate is finding new relevance now as media jobs decline, and the future of Journalism becomes more uncertain. If the truly brilliant are struggling, where does that leave the rest of us? Indeed, despite burgeoning enrolment rates at Journalism schools the world over, only in 2016 will reporter positions increase. Great. Only 7 years to go.

I cannot deny the personal value of the university experience. I met some of my best friends and learned some of my hardest emotional lessons to date while there. Most (sadly not all) of us have by now, through university, acquired a bulk of the social and life skills needed to get us through to adulthood and the Real World.

And let's face it, these days going to university is so commonplace it's almost rare to find someone without at least one degree upon entering the workforce.

But after all that, though better off personally and to some extent professionally for the experience, I have to wonder if maybe, I might've fallen into Journalism even without it, as so many of the best seem to have done, and left my parents $7518.60 richer, to make up in some small way for the recent death of half of their superannuation fund.

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