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News Associates named top UK journalism course

Manchester-based training provider News Associates has been named the UK’s top-performing journalism course after 88pc of its students reached the industry ‘gold standard.’

Prizes for the five top-performing courses were handed out at last night’s Journalism Skills Conference annual dinner, organised by the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

The NCTJ handed out awards to the courses with the highest percentage of students achieving the “gold standard” – C grade passes or better in all exams and 100 wpm shorthand.

The best performing course overall was News Associates’ Manchester-based multimedia journalism course, with it winning the award for the top commercial fast-track course.

There was also a double success for Nottingham Trent University which picked up two accolades for the best performing undergraduate and top postgraduate courses.

Its BA honours in print journalism topped the undergraduate table, with 50pc of students achieving the gold standard, while 80pc of its MA magazine journalism students gained it.

Introducing the awards, NCTJ chief executive Joanne Butcher said: “All our accredited course providers should be congratulated on achieving the high standards the industry expects.

“It is no mean feat to achieve accreditation and to make the public commitment to providing all the NCTJ requires. We know how demanding and exacting that standard is and the public scrutiny it involves for the courses we accredit,” she said.

Lambeth College was named the best fast-track course at further education colleges, with 42pc of their magazine journalism students meeting the industry standard.

The top FE academic year course was won by City of Wolverhampton College, where 71pc of students made the grade.

Detailed exam results for all NCTJ-accredited courses are set to be released next month.