Welcome to the newsroom on a Monday morning. There’s commotion, panic, disappointment and excitement. Some might say it’s just another day in journalism, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’m an intern in the world of journalism and Fairfax has just wielded the axe: 1900 jobs, the closure of two printing plants, and loads of uncertainty. News Limited was sharpening the blade too. You know the story to come: one city, one newsroom, etc.

My exchanges with those nearby felt like commiserations. Commiserations for not only choosing a profession in crisis but for apparently being duped by a money-hungry tertiary system that spits out students for financial gain.

That prevailing question was on the lips of the room: that surely journalism schools are a part of the problem here?

In the midst of a crisis defined by staff cuts schools continue to produce surplus graduates. The point of contention is whether it is ethical for journalism schools to accept so many students when there are only a hand full of jobs available?

It’s a common argument, one spearheaded by The Australian’s April ‘special’ on journalism schools. With the subsequent cuts at Fairfax and News Limited, the argument has received a new gust of wind in its sails. A wind that lays blame at the door of journalism schools.

But it’s also an argument that offered me solace; I agreed completely. I felt my ambitions fall from under me that morning. I felt a little duped. After all, journalism was always the goal, a comforting ambition when faced with the ‘arts-based’ jibes of friends.

But it was so much more than that. It was the sight of something, which I loved, suffering. I wanted to blame journalism schools. I wanted to blame money-hungry universities. It felt good to blame them. And I did.

And why not? Look at those cold facts that dictate our industry. More students now study journalism than at any other time in Australia. The Australian reported that since 2001, the number of students studying post-graduate journalism has increased by 75% while undergraduate studies have grown by 55%. The traditional jobs, however, have dried up.

But like many, I’ve calmed down a little since that morning in June.  Now my views couldn’t be more different.

I believe that journalism schools should teach their craft to as many who wish to study it, be it for career ambitions or just plain and simple interest.

Journalism isn’t dead. The thirst for news will not disappear. There will always be stories to tell. There will always be stories that need to be told.

Yes, the profession and service need to be commercially viable. The move to digital is painful, but necessary and long overdue.

But if we are to reshape journalism in this country we need a generations of journalists who can respond to an ever-changing industry, with an integrity that is often missing of late.

This will mean more than journalists who play to tabloids or those who are ruthless in their measures.  It will mean more than the romanticised view of ‘the newsroom’. It means journalists who continue to question, who refuse to lie still, who take pride in thorough investigations, analysis and ethical standards.

Our schools must play a key role in this endeavour. In recent years the pulls of commercial interest, competition and business pressure have often overwhelmed a commitment to these standards. Our schools must be a buffer against this. They must become institutions that entrench these qualities in a new breed of digital journalists.

Journalism’s method of delivery may be changing, but its ideals and principles must not.

Be it the wake of the Leveson inquiry, in the midst of the ‘quote approval’ debate in the US, or in awaiting of the ACMA’s response to last week’s media coverage of Goldspink-Lord family tragedy, it is clear that ethical and professional standards need to reinforced.

Australia’s media market is also in dire need of new players. We know that the more participants in the press means the stronger our media and democracy become. This has always been the case. Yet it’s a sentiment that is lost in the business models that drive media companies today, which claw over each other to carve ever-growing market control at the expense of competitors or even their own paper.

There’s certainly no shortage of candidates for change, despite an apparent lack of employment opportunities. According to The Australian‘s coverage, in 2011, 4750 students enrolled in journalism degrees despite the fact that the entire Australian industry only employs 9000 people. Again in 2011, Australia’s major news and wire services hired a total of 52 graduate entry jobs.

A journalism degree equips students with transferable skills valuable to not only their careers, but for society itself. Think of a never-ending curiosity, a critical eye, a thoroughness of investigation, and the desire to hold power to account. Our society, our public and private sectors, and our democracy could do with more people who espouse these qualities.

Of course our universities and technical schools are not the only path to a rewarding career in journalism. Such an argument is every bit as trivial as moves to call our schools irrelevant, outdated or financial shams.

To ignore the influence of our schools on future journalists is not only folly and misguided, but smells of a revenge campaign directed against the very academics who are so often critical of journalism’s deteriorating standards.

That being said, journalism schools cannot get off that lightly. They must continue to shake up their curriculum for a new age, and quick fast. They must be adaptive. Like our news media, they must refrain from becoming mere vessels for business revenue. Our schools must serve as the training grounds for future standard bearers.

We have little idea what the media landscape will like in ten or twenty years. But we know the independent standards we expect.

What’s the alternative?

Our schools are where we shape the future. Cut journalism schools and you cut the future of journalism at its knees.

Henry Belot is a Master of Global Media Communication student at the University of Melbourne.  You can follow him on Twitter: @henry_belot