Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM), one of the country’s elite J-schools, has decided to close its doors due to low student turnout amidst financial issues. IIJNM sought the bank details of applicants for the 2024-25 academic year via email, in inorder to refund the fee amount.
“The management of the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) regrets to inform you that we will no longer offer programmes in Journalism. This decision was reached as the number of applicants so far this year is far below what is needed for a viable programme.
“Without waiting for the planned start of the course this year on July 22, 2024, we are giving you notice of closing down our beloved Institution. We recognise it might pose some difficulty for you, but we have no other choice,” the email sent by the institute said.
“The recent environment in which we have been operating, it is not possible to attract enough students to avoid huge financial losses to continue the programme,” the email read.
IIJNM, established 24 years ago, received a lesser number of applications this year in comparison to last year, a source told Indian Express. Even the minimum number of students needed to keep running the course was not met, the report added.
“Given the recent environment in which we have been operating, it is not possible to attract enough students to avoid huge financial losses to continue the programme,” the source reportedly told Express on Friday.
IIJNM offered Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism programmes in print, television, radio and multimedia journalism.