UU Journalism Course Gains International Status

News that one of the world's largest and most technologically advanced media agencies has designated the University of Ulster's MA Journalism as one of its preferred journalism programmes, is a major fillip for the post graduate course.

The endorsement from Bloomberg, the New York-based media giant comes on the heels of another major accolade for the programme, as it recently became the world's first postgraduate course to achieve dual industry accreditation as a full multimedia course.

This means graduates gain the skills that enable them to write a news story and seamlessly produce it for radio, TV or interactive.

It was awarded this status from the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BBC, ITN, Sky News) and the National Council for the Training of Journalists (print/online).

Bloomberg only partners with some of the top journalism schools internationally with regard to placements and lecturer training.

The status will allow media lecturers from the University of Ulster to attend special "Professor Days" at Bloomberg and receive presentations from Bloomberg's training department, editors and recruiters on the latest trends and technology.

Course Director Colm Murphy, (pictured here reviewing the latest edition of the students' newspaper with Marie Duffy, at Coleraine's multiplatform newsroom) said: "This is the strongest possible international endorsement from industry of the standards being achieved on our MA Journalism.

"It will open up placement opportunities around the globe for our students as well as keeping our staff at the forefront of advances in news technology."

A Bloomberg spokesperson said that the company was keen to build its relationship with its target journalism schools like Ulster.

The knowledge acquired from working with global leaders like Bloomberg is also helping the Ulster course team in developing indigenous media companies.

Already this summer the course team is delivering custom training in multimedia to indigenous media companies that have global ambition.

The MA Journalism programme had the best employment record of any journalism course in the UK last year with 100% of its students securing employment before graduating. It also had one of the best records for students receiving national awards.

The course is also part of the Northern Ireland Skillset Media Academy, one of only 17 in the UK.

(BMcC)