Court in the act

By IAIN KING, Toronto, November 9, 2017

UNIVERSITY of the West of Scotland journalism program chief Elizabeth McLaughlin was in Toronto on business last week and I was delighted when we met up to be told I'd won the UWS Court Medal after completing my degree there in the summer.

I mixed lecturing on the Sports Journalism course at the UWS campus in Ayr with my life as a mature student because the industry only offered a Higher National Diploma in Journalism Studies when I first graduated from Edinburgh's Napier College way back in 1987.

Life at UWS was one helluva education as I learned to write academically rather than journalistically and my Honours degree means the world to me.

My classmates - and pupils - were great fun to work with and I wanted to say a special thank you to Ada Adamczak from Poland and Holland's Nathalie Kamphuis who collaborated on the creation of the documentary on Israeli football giants Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv that got me over the line.

The graduates from the course are already in positions at prestigious outlets like the Scottish Sun, the Daily Mail and Celtic FC - it's a course to be reckoned with.

My final nod goes to my lecturers Chris Kilgallon on radio, Ken Pratt on research methods and Fiona Averill on sports policy but most of all to my former colleague on the Ayrshire local papers Elizabeth for having the faith to let me teach on such a great campus.

SEAT OF LEARNING...the beautiful University of the West of Scotland campus in Ayr