On June 16th students studying on the MA Financial Journalism at City University started a week’s study at New York University’s (NYU) journalism department. This summer school – established through a generous grant from the Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation – aims to encourage students to develop international perspectives on economic and business reporting, reflecting the increasingly globalised nature of business and finance.

Hosted by NYU Carter School of Journalism’s Business and Economic Reporting faculty, the students from London are attending classes about America’s economy; the debate over growing inequality; financial regulation and the mortgage crisis. They will also meet the Editors-in-Chief of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and visit the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

This is the second study trip students from City’s financial journalism course have undertaken this year. In April students travelled to China, visiting Tsinghua University’s Global Business Journalism department in Beijing before going to Fudan University in Shanghai. And in May City University’s Journalism Department hosted students from NYU in London: they studied the euro-crisis and Britain’s austerity measures, as well as visiting the Bank of England and the BBC.

In addition to funding the establishment of the study-trips, the Marjorie Deane Foundation made available travel subsidies for all students wishing to participate in either of them. It also supported NYU students visiting London.

The travel programmes are led by Professor Steve Schifferes, who is joining the students in New York and Linda Lewis, who accompanied the class to China. Professor Schifferes is Marjorie Deane Professor of Financial Journalism and course director for the MA in Financial Journalism, whilst Linda Lewis, the summer school director, has been Acting Director of Broadcasting, and programme director of City’s MA in Broadcast and Television Journalism.

Professor Schifferes says: ‘This new programme demonstrates the attractiveness of City’s financial journalism programme to leading journalism departments around the world.  It is a vital component in our educational approach which stresses the global nature of business and economic coverage, and provides valuable insights into the two key financial world financial centres to supplement our own close ties with London as a leading financial and media centre.”

Linda Lewis added, “This has been an exciting opportunity to expose student to other cultures, with different approaches to the media and to business affairs. The fantastic collaboration we have established with leading journalism schools in China and New York has enabled students to combine the best of academic teaching with practical experience in both these centres.”

Steve Solomon, NYU’s Marjorie Deane professor and the director of the Business and Economic Reporting programme, commenting on the experience of NYU students at City, said: “Many thanks for all your meticulous planning and for your warm hospitality. It was indeed a great week of learning (and fun) for the students. I know from talking with them that the visit was very successful.”