A London-based sports journalism course has been named the best-performing NCTJ-accredited course in the UK for 2018-19

News Associates sports media diploma scooped the prize as the training body’s awards for excellence were handed out in Sunderland.

The course performance awards are based on students’ achievements in the Diploma in Journalism exams.

The sports media diploma course at News Associates achieved a 94pc rate on the gold standard measure of A-C grades in all exams and shorthand at 100 words per minute.  The centre also won the award for having the top performing independent provider fast-track courses.

News Associates’ head of journalism Graham Moody and editorial development manager Lucy Dyer at last night’s awards

Overall in the 2018-19 academic year, 230 students on NCTJ accredited courses achieved the gold standard.

Celebrations were also in order for City of Wolverhampton College, which won the award for the best performing further education course for the ninth year running.

The awards for the best performing degree courses went to the University of Portsmouth, for their BA journalism course, and Cardiff University, for their MA news journalism course.

The innovation of the year award was won by Ulster University which developed an intensive six-day module designed to9 equip students to report in hostile environments following the killing of 29-year-old reporter Lyra McKee in April.

The full list of centre award winners is as follows:

Best performing Higher Education Undergraduate course: University of Portsmouth, BA Hons Journalism

Best performing Higher Education Postgraduate course: Cardiff University, MA News Journalism

Best performing Independent Provider Fast-Track courses; News Associates London

Best performing Further Education course:City of Wolverhampton College, Academic Year Course

Best Performing Course Overall: News Associates London, Sports Media Diploma

Innovation of the Year: Ulster University