Top performing NCTJ-accredited courses recognised at Journalism Skills Conference

The five top performing NCTJ accredited courses 2011-12 were presented with awards following the gala dinner at the Journalism Skills Conference held at Nottingham Contemporary on 28 November.

Journalism courses in five different areas were presented with awards for the highest percentage of students achieving the NCTJ gold standard: C grade passes or better in all exams plus 100 wpm shorthand.

Introducing the awards, NCTJ chief executive Joanne Butcher said: “All our accredited course providers should be congratulated on achieving the high standards the industry expects.

“It is no mean feat to achieve accreditation and to make the public commitment to providing all the NCTJ requires. We know how demanding and exacting that standard is and the public scrutiny it involves for the 68 courses we accredit.”

Top of the postgraduate results table was the Post Graduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism at Cardiff University, with 69 per cent of students achieving C grades and above with 100 wpm shorthand.

Nottingham Trent University topped the undergraduate table with 62 per cent of students that completed the BA in Print Journalism achieving the gold standard qualification.

Highbury College topped the table for the accredited fast-track courses at further education colleges with 46 per cent of students meeting the industry standard.

The best performing FE academic year course was City of Wolverhampton College with 42 per cent of students in 2011-12 achieving the gold standard.

The final award, for best performing commercial fast-track course, went to Press Association Training’s Newcastle-based Multimedia Journalism course with 85 per cent of students meeting the gold standard. This result also meant that Press Association Newcastle was the best performing course overall for the second year in a row.

Detailed exam results for all 68 NCTJ-accredited courses will be published on the NCTJ website in December.