News Journalism named top performing NCTJ course

News Journalism has secured the award for top performing National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) postgraduate journalism course for 2015-16.

Awards for the top NCTJ-accredited courses were presented during an awards dinner held at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport on Thursday, 24 November.

On the night journalism courses were presented with awards for the highest percentage of students achieving the NCTJ gold standard: A-C grade passes in all exams plus 100 words per minute shorthand.

Cardiff University earned the award with 93% of students reaching the NCTJ’s gold standard pass rate.

Course Director Michael Hill said, “Cardiff University have a track record of producing some of the UK’s best journalistic talent.

“Whilst the core principles of what we teach has not changed, the tools and channels we use to tell those stories have changed fundamentally.

“News Journalism blends the very latest digital tools and techniques alongside the existing core elements of good journalism to produce newsroom ready journalists.”

The award comes hot on the heels of John Simpson’s praise for our School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, when he opened Cardiff University’s Hadyn Ellis Distinguished Lecture by saying, “It really is a pleasure and privilege to come to Cardiff, the mecca of journalistic training.”

News Journalism students have the opportunity to study from a varied selection of elective modules which include sports, motoring, business and data journalism.