Did you know Twickenham is home to two of the best journalism schools in the country?

St Mary's University's Sports Journalism Masters was named the top NCTJ-accredited course for postgraduates.

And News Associates, based in York Street, came out on top for having the UK's best performing independent fast-track course.

Daragh Minogue is Sports Journalism course leader at St Mary's. He said: "My colleagues and I are very proud of this achievement, but we have to pay tribute to our students who displayed remarkable resilience during the first lockdown. It's no surprise that most of them have gone on to find work in the sports media as well.

"It also confirms that St Mary's is the place to be if you want to become a sports journalist."

News Associates was crowned best independent fast-track course for the eighth year in a row and the number one-ranked NCTJ course in London for 12 straight years.

Managing editor James Toney said the team was "incredibly proud".

"Gold-standard NCTJ qualifications are the benchmark of journalism excellence and congratulations to the 222 who achieved this nationally – the fact 46% of them trained with us is again a source of much pride for our team," he said.

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About the NCTJ

The National Council for the Training of Journalists, which was founded in 1951, runs one of the UK's leading journalist training schemes, with 73% of qualified journalists having trained on one of its accredited programmes.

The annual ranking of NCTJ-accredited courses is based on student achievements in their academic studies in the 2019-20 academic year.

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