NCTJ publishes examiners’ report celebrating year of NQJ success

The NCTJ has published this year’s National Qualification in Journalism (NQJ) examiners’ report, celebrating the achievements of journalists who excelled in the 2024-25 exams.

This year, 280 candidates sat the exams across three sittings, with an impressive 71 per cent pass rate, marking a 5 per cent increase on the previous year.

The NQJ examiners’ report names all the journalists who achieved the qualification across sittings in November 2024, March 2025 and July 2025.

Commenting on this year’s results, NCTJ chief examiner Andy Martin said: “The results in 2024-25 have been excellent. It is particularly pleasing to see the pass rate in media law and ethics in practice rise to 72 per cent and of course the 100 per cent pass rate for the e-logbook, reflecting another year of the highest standards of work and indeed dedication to the cause in newsrooms up and down the country.”

This year, the big news story exam was updated to include blogs and live updates. Andy commented that “the feedback on the new look exam was very positive” and the changes bring the exam “bang up to date with the modern, digital newsroom which has a strong focus on live blogs/pages.”

The year also saw the successful introduction of a new big news story sport exam, designed to meet the needs of sports journalists. The specialist assessment had its first sitting in July 2025.

Lyn Jones, head of qualifications at the NCTJ, said: “These outstanding results demonstrate that journalism training continues to evolve alongside the industry. The successful launch of our big news story sport exam and the positive response to the updated big news story exam show that the NQJ is keeping pace with modern newsroom practices, while maintaining the rigorous standards that make this qualification so highly valued.”

The NCTJ’s annual examiners’ report provides insights into the performance of all candidates across the three NQJ exam sittings in 2024-25.

Read the NQJ examiners’ report 2025 below

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