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Journalism students urged to come to Milton Keynes

A university has set up a new journalism degree course on one of its campuses.

The University of Bedfordshire will start running its BA Honours Journalism course in Milton Keynes this autumn.

The course will be run at the University Campus Milton Keynes and is understood to be the first full-time BA in journalism to be run in the town.

Budding journalists were previously taught a Foundation Degree in Journalism at Milton Keynes College in partnership with the university, followed by a top-up year at the university campus to allow students to gain a full degree.

The Milton Keynes campus where the degree will be taught.

The Milton Keynes campus where the degree will be taught.

The university already runs a number of journalism degrees at its Luton campus.

UCMK journalism lecturer Jon Boyle said: “I’m extremely excited about the new course as all of our graduates will leave with a valuable journalistic work placement on their CV, which should boost their chances of securing that all-important first job.

“The course is also great news for aspiring journalists in MK as they will now be able to spend a full three years studying for a BA Honours in one venue locally, instead of having to jump between institutions or travel further afield.

“The University of Bedfordshire offers a range of journalism degrees at its Luton campus, including BA Hons journalism, sports journalism, broadcast journalism, magazine journalism and journalism & PR.

“The new MK course is currently the only one that includes a placement but there are plans for them to be rolled out across further courses in the near future.”

The Milton Keynes-based Citiblog reports that the new course has now been approved by a panel and will be launched in October.

Students on the degree course will be taught about page design and sub-editing, reporting, multimedia journalism and about the industry during the first year.

The second year will see them learn about journalism law and public administration, specialist and feature writing, while they will then carry out a placement in the industry.

In the final year, the students will be taught ethics and journalism, magazine and online publishing and will also carry out a special project.