St John's Students Highly Commended by the Student Publication Association

The Student Publication Association (SPA) is the largest student media association, representing student newspapers, magazines, websites and other publishing across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

Since 2013, the SPA has organised an annual awards ceremony in celebration of the excellent work done by student journalists throughout the year.

There were over a thousand entries for the 2025 competition in Exeter, making the SPA's National Awards the UK and Ireland's largest journalism awards. Nominations were judged by a diverse range of top editors and journalists from media organisations including BBC News, Sky News, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, OK Magazine and Politics JOE.

St John's students were highly commended in two categories.

Laurence Cooke was highly commended in the 'Best Lifestyle Piece' category for his feature '2024 Intoxtigation results: Merton drink least, Christ Church most' in the Cherwell. This feature was co-written with Victoria McKinley-Smith (The Queen's College, Oxford)

Sanaya Narula was highly commended in the 'Best Interview' category for her profile, 'On poetry, prison, and new notions of time: In conversation with Mohsen Mohamed' in the Cherwell.

Congratulations to you both!

The Cherwell, the University of Oxford's oldest student newspaper, won the 'Best Website' award was highly commended in the 'Best Overall Digital Media' category. Writing for the Cherwell, Éilis Mathur (The Queen's College, Oxford) won the 'Best News Story' award for her article on Peter Mandelson's candidacy for Oxford chancellorship.

The full list of winners can be found on the SPA's website.