University News Last updated 17 October 2014
The Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) Student Journalism Awards, backed by the UK's leading broadcasters, are to be held in Birmingham for the first time on Thursday 20 November.
The UK's top student journalists will be at Birmingham City University for the awards ceremony next month to celebrate the best of student television radio and online journalism.
The BJTC is supported by the BBC, ITV, Sky News, ITN, Reuters, AP, Channel 4, Creative Skillset and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Birmingham City University is home to one of the BJTC's accredited courses and has recently invested in cutting edge technology for its radio, television and journalism facilities as part of the University’s City Centre Campus estate developments.
Award nominees will come from the BJTC's 68 courses across the UK, currently offering unrivalled industry-led multimedia broadcast journalism training to more than 3500 students on postgraduate and BA degree courses.
Hosting the event on 20 November will be former BBC Asian Network Journalist Neila Butt and Dominic Laurie, BBC Breakfast business presenter and former Media and Communication student at Birmingham City University.
Dominic said: "I wouldn't be where I am today without sharp, focused training at the beginning of my journey in journalism. By the time I walked into a real newsroom for the first time, I had already learned what standards were required and how I might start to strive for them."
Judges for the 2014 awards have seen a record level of entries in eight categories: Best TV News Item, Best Radio News Item, Best TV News Feature, Best Radio News Feature, Best TV Documentary, Best Radio Documentary, Website of the Year and Best TV Newsday.
The Steve Harris Award for Student Journalist of the Year will be presented to one of the winners or runners up whom the judges feel has excelled beyond all other entries and has shown the most rounded multimedia ability. A £500 cash prize will accompany this award.
Professor David Roberts, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at Birmingham City University, said: "We are thrilled to host the annual BJTC awards ceremony. It's a chance for us to celebrate the best in journalism education in the midst of our amazing new facilities.
"With the BBC's recent announcement that its training academy is to come to Birmingham, there's never been a better time to show the profession what our city has to offer."