UCF's Press Photography course in unique partnership with Rex Features

UCF's BA(Hons) Press & Editorial Photography course has embarked upon a ground- breaking partnership with internationally renowned Rex Features, the UK's leading independent photographic press agency.

This unique collaboration will enable UCF Press & Editorial Photography students to have their work marketed and sold commercially through Rex Features - reaching national and world-wide media that would normally only be available to professional photographers. Rex Features will also provide the students with feedback and constructive criticism about their work as well as invaluable insights into the world which they inhabit, to help them fast-track their careers upon graduation.

Rex Features will also share its wealth of knowledge and experience with the students at Falmouth by providing guest speakers throughout the year ranging from professional photographers to editors who will inform them about every aspect of the fast-paced and competitive world of press photography. To complement the course's existing expertise, students will be invited to visit Rex Features at its headquarters in London to gain an insider view of exactly how the business works.

The BA(Hons) Press & Editorial Photography course was launched by University College Falmouth in 2007 and its first cohort of students, known as The Pressgang, has already won national acclaim.

In March this year, Rex Features syndicated world-wide a photograph by first-year student, Tom Skinner, of a young couple being swept towards the sea in storm-force winds at Porthleven who luckily survived to tell the tale. It was this photograph that sparked this special partnership.

"We first met Rex Features when Gretchen Viehmann visited the students in April this year," said Course Leader, Mal Stone, who is himself an award-winning press photographer with many accolades to his name. "Gretchen was really impressed with the professional attitude of the students and the work they created, and began to discuss the possibility of a partnership that would be immensely beneficial to the students," he added. "Falmouth's Press & Editorial Photography course aims to offer students the opportunity to work with industry experts on real-life assignments in real time, and our partnership with Rex Features demonstrates that at Falmouth we attract only the best."

Gretchen Viehmann, who is Editor-in-Chief at Rex Features said: "We at Rex Features are excited to be able to forge this relationship with the Press Photography course at University College Falmouth, and its students, to help the next generation of press photographers enter the business world equipped to do their jobs with a competitive edge."

Rex Features is a family-owned business that has an unequalled presence in the British press as well as in thousands of publications worldwide. Now in its sixth decade, Rex Features has a vast collection of images which is added to daily, from historical and breaking news to celebrity features.

University College Falmouth's BA(Hons) Press Photography course is located in a bespoke two-storey Photography Centre that was designed in consultation with the industry. It includes hugely expanded digital and photographic facilities as well as specialist resources such as an electronic picture desk, all of which cements the College's position as one of the top providers of photographic education in the UK.

For further information about BA(Hons) Press & Editorial Photography at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/pressphotography, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 213854.

For more information about Rex Features visit http://www.rexfeatures.com/, email enquiries@rexfeatures.com or telephone 0207 278 7294.

In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts to create a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.

The merger will pave the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall in 2012, creating a Higher Education institution unique to the South West.

University College Falmouth is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby, Head of Public Affairs MCIPR, Telephone: 00 44 (0)1326 213792; or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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