PgDip/MA Journalism

Why choose this course?Accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) for over a decade, this Journalism PgDip/MA course will equip you for a career in journalism by offering the industry’s most sought-after qualification alongside your PgDip or master’s degree. It combines professional training and academic study with the skills you will need to succeed in this intensely competitive industry. As well as being the only London university to offer an NCTJ diploma alongside a news journalism MA, Kingston University was ranked 1st in London for Journalism and Publishing in the Guardian University Guide 2020.What you will studyYou will develop a range of professional, practical skills and knowledge that will equip you for a job in journalism, including news and feature writing, public affairs, online journalism, media law and shorthand. You will have the opportunity to report and write for our news website, the Kingston Courier, which is run by our postgraduate students. Using your acquired design skills, you’ll learn to produce a print supplement to our university newspaper, The River. Once you have achieved the PgDip, which runs over two semesters from September to May, you can continue on to the MA degree by researching and writing a dissertation or carrying out an equivalent work-based practical project. This will develop your critical thinking and analytical skills, and give you the chance to carry out independent academic research.Teaching and assessmentTeaching methods include workshops, lectures, student-led seminars and guided research. Assessment methods are often based on the production of news stories, features and essays. You will also be appraised on your performance on the postgraduate publications which you work on during the course. The NCTJ diploma is assessed by exams. You will also benefit from weekly guest lectures – in the past year guests have included senior journalists and editors at The Guardian, Glamour, The Sunday Times, VICE, Vogue, New Statesman and CNN.After you graduateIn addition to a possible career as a journalist, alternatives may include work in publishing, advertising and marketing, film, television, radio, arts management, new media, business and teaching. Every year the vast majority of our students go on to successful careers, mostly in journalism and the media, or related industries. In the last few years, our graduates progressed to roles at CNN, the Daily Express, Wandsworth Guardian, Accountancy Age, Barcroft media, Container Management, Metro, Grazia, Richmond and Twickenham Times and Investors Chronicle.