News

Journalism degree applications up 24%

Despite the swingeing cut-backs in journalism jobs in the past year, applications for journalism-related degree courses are up by nearly one-quarter on last year.

According to UCAS, the university admissions service, journalism degrees are among the fastest growing courses in terms of popularity. UCAS had 13,229 applications to journalism courses due to begin in October 2009 (each applicant may choose up to five courses).

This is in spite of the loss of jobs throughout the industry – the NUJ estimates around 1,000 jobs, 700 of them at regional papers, have gone, while Press Gazette puts the figure of media job losses at closer to 4,000.

According to UCAS, there are 774 degree courses in the UK offering an element of journalism.

According to the National Council for the Training of Journalists, 1,721 students attended accredited journalism courses in the 2007-08 academic year – up from 1,611 in the previous year and 1,326 in 2005-06.

Click here for Press Gazette’s latest graph of industry job losses

More sports journalism links


Your SJA subscription was due from JANUARY 1 – click here for details of how to make your payment