A student from the Centre for Journalism (CfJ) at the University of Kent has won the Student Project of the Year prize at the NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
Michael Haffenden from Tunbridge Wells won for his film Team Brit about a racing team made up of injured ex-military veterans and disabled civilians who are progressing up the racing ladder and aim to compete in the greatest race in the world – the Le Mans 24 Hours – by 2020.
Two other Kent journalism students were nominated. Indya Clayton of Banbury, Oxfordshire, was highly commended for her project The Search for Black Blood. Her film investigates why there is a shortage of black blood donors in the UK. As she had not previously given blood, she filmed her own attempt to become a donor.
Isabel Eidhamar, originally from Norway, was commended for her feature that covered two personal stories – one of which, Utoya- Surviving Mass Murder, is a multimedia piece that follows the story of Mari Nymoen Eikre, who survived the 2011 Norway terror attacks in Oslo and on Utya, where Anders Breivik killed 77 people.
The awards, which recognise and reward the best journalism students and trainees across the UK, were presented at a gala dinner and ceremony on 29 November 2018 by Sky News presenter Sarah Hewson. She said the judges had been ‘thoroughly impressed with the standard and quality of the work they saw’.
The NCTJ said it had received a record-breaking number of entries for various award categories this year.
Professor Tim Luckhurst, head of the CfJ at Kent said: ‘Everyone in the Centre is intensely proud of Michael, Indya and Isabel. Their work is truly excellent. Their success at these prestigious national awards is first and foremost a credit to them, but we are also delighted that their achievements illustrate the exceptional quality of the journalism education available at Kent. The plain truth is that Kent journalism graduates get excellent jobs in the news industry’.