A group of postgraduate journalism trainees have seen their work appear in the Scottish nationals after they were set a challenge to produce copy in their student newspaper fit for commission.

Students at the Scottish Centre for Journalism Studies, run jointly by Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian universities, produced a total of six editions of their own newspaper, The Dispatch.

Articles subsequently appeared in The Herald, The Scotsman, the Big Issue and and Holyrood Magazine, covering the Scottish Parliament.

Articles included one accusing Prestwick Airport of neglect, in vetting torture flights, a feature on Glasgow becoming Britain's second media city and another on poor housing for the city's disabled.

Interviews with Scotland football manager, Alex McLeish, another with world-famous intellectual, Francis Fukuyama, and a piece looking into a controversial political group, are set to find a home.

Acting postgraduate course leader, Paul Rowinski, said: “I set them the challenge of producing copy fit to print in the nationals - but I did not think they would actually pull it off, and in such numbers.”