BUK gets licence to operate television station

The Dean of Post Graduate Studies, Bayero University Kano (BUK), Prof Umaru Pate said the varsity has been granted a television operational licence to complement their training activities.

“We have been given Direct Satellite Broadcasting (DSB) licence which can offer both education and commercial purpose, so hopefully by next year we should be able to start transmitting fully,” Prof Pate told Daily Trust.

He said currently the varsity has a fully digitalised radio studio that has been improved on what it was before but that they are yet to commission the studio.

“Right now we are in the process of acquiring equipment to furnish the place and ensure that students are properly trained. All of these are in addition to a fully functional computer laboratory that we have also installed to ensure that our students are fully trained to be able to handle the latest equipment in the business,” he said.

According to him, having a television station will not only train their students for educational purpose but will also give the university exposure all over the world.

“Since it is for commercial purpose as well, we shall also engage our students in different backgrounds of Engineering, Communication and Business, they will benefit,” Pate added.

He said with the approval of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to unbundle Mass Communication into seven new disciplines of BSc in Journalism, Advertising, Broadcasting, Public Relations, Information and media studies, Film and Multi Media and BSc Development Communication, “We need laboratories fully functioning ones to be able to sustain the programmes we are going to run, so with a BSc Broadcasting and Advertising you could be sure that our students have a lot to do.”

For those with degree in mass communication, he said they will still maintain their degrees but students coming in now will have specialization.