We fight your corner

Running or writing for a student publication can feel like you’re up against the world - we’ll back you if you’re threatened with censorship and help you break your stories.

Industry standard training

Whether it’s brushing up on your media law to learning to write that killer intro, we provide training from journalism’s best to make sure your skills are up to scratch.

Celebrate your work

Our annual awards let you shout about how incredible your student publication is, with regional ones available throughout the year too - our winners regularly go on to snag top jobs.

A like-minded community

Want to swap story ideas? How did that one publication get their website so fancy? We put you in touch with editors and writers countrywide who know what it’s like.

It’s free!

Best of all, becoming a member of the SPA is free. We have a few conditions of membership, but we know money is tight so we don’t ask for any membership fees to join our organisation.
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How to join

Applying for membership is quick and easy, but there are a few conditions to meet to make sure you are eligible.

We offer two types of membership, publication and individual.

Publication membership

This is our most popular type of membership and is open to student newspapers, magazines and websites across the UK and Ireland.

A publication membership covers all editors, journalists, contributors and photographers for the entirety of their time volunteering for their publication. This means if your publication is a member, you are automatically a member of the SPA (but you can apply to be an individual member in your own right too).

You can check here if your publication is already a member.

To be eligible for publication membership, the running of the publication must primarily be carried out by students in further or higher education.

Usually applications for this type of membership come from a senior editor.

 
Individual membership

Even if your publication is part of the SPA, you can join as an individual member.

The benefits of individual membership include a direct line of communication with the SPA, eligibility for our membership hub (coming soon!) and news about our workshops, awards, and training as soon as they are announced. It also simplifies the process to join our alumni network once your membership comes to an end the year after you graduate.

This category of membership is also available to those on journalism courses or student journalists who are not part of an SPA member publication.