Students at an undergraduate journalism course are being offered £500 in compensation after the host university failed in its bid to receive accreditation from the Broadcast Journalism Training Council.

The University of Sussex in Brighton has been telling applicants for its BA Journalism course for a number of years that it was “seeking accreditation” from the BJTC, one of two main accreditation bodies for journalism courses in the UK alongside the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

However it withdrew from the accreditation process earlier this year after failing to meet the BJTC’s criteria. The university had not applied for accreditation from the NCTJ, according to the body.