A university has set up its own picture agency to help its photojournalism students sell their photographs to media outlets.

The University of Gloucestershire’s photojournalism and documentary photography course has launched the agency, called Pathos, which will facilitate the distribution of images taken by students to regional, national and international newspapers, agencies and periodicals.

The project will also help to train students in the field of photographic industry standards and will be open to students for three years after graduation.

Course leader Paul Roberts will lead the picture desk initially, but this is later set to be run by students themselves.

Paul, pictured, said: “The Pathos picture agency will be a ‘safe space’ where our students can send their images.

“If the images aren’t quite correct, we will let students know what and how to fix. We will not just reject an image as a traditional picture agency would do.

“We will apply the highest ethical standards to the images accepted into the library. If something appears to be questionable with regards to ethics, then we will not distribute.

“The agency will be open to all photojournalism and documentary photography students, as well as to former students for three years post-graduation, enabling them to get a foothold in a very competitive industry.

“Our students can cover a wide range of subjects, in both stills-imagery and moving-image, and are available to be booked for commissions.