I promised to tell you about the criteria that will be used to choose this year’s Sky Bob Friend Memorial Scholar. Please note that the timetable is tight and the deadlines are rigid.

The 2009 scholar will be chosen on or before Friday 30 January. A formal presentation will take place at the first annual Sky Bob Friend Memorial Lecture which will take place in the Pilkington Lecture Theatre here on the Medway Campus on Monday 9 February. All staff and students in the Centre for Journalism will be invited to attend.

All current undergraduate students in the Centre are eligible to apply for the 2009 scholarship. The application process has three stages.

i) Each applicant will prepare a paper outlining a multimedia treatment of a news story. This should include suggestions for television, radio and online output. It should consider options for live broadcasting (video and audio), hyperlinking and creating picture galleries. Familiarity with Sky News and its competitors will be essential. DEADLINE - papers to be submitted to the scholarship award panel (via my office) by noon on Wednesday 28 January.

ii) The academic staff of the Centre for Journalism will consider all the papers before drawing up a shortlist of between 3 and 5 candidates whose names will be put forward for interview and test by the scholarship award panel (the panel has three members: a representative of Sky News, a representative of the Friend family and the head of the Centre for Journalism).

iii) On a day to be decided (probably Friday 30 January) all the shortlisted candidates will sit a spelling, grammar and current affairs test set by the scholarship award panel. These test papers will be considered by the panel which will also interview each shortlisted candidate. Interviews will last around 40 minutes. Familiarity with Bob Friend’s career and with Sky News will be essential.

The panel will choose the 2009 Sky Bob Friend Scholar.

The scholarship is highly prestigious and very valuable. The scholar will have their first year fees paid and will get an expenses-paid placement with Sky News. S/he will be an ambassador for the Centre for Journalism and Sky News. Winning will require work of a truly professional standard. The scholar will be required to sustain that professionalism throughout the year and throughout the placement.