Beth Jones (pictured below), who completed her MA in Publishing last year at Anglia Ruskin University, won the Cambridge University Press (CUP) Best Dissertation Award for her business plan to start a magazine for English Language students living in Cambridge. And Beth’s ambition has turned into reality as the first edition of The International Student Times is now hot off the press.
Beth, who lives in Trumpington, said: “It was a wonderful feeling to receive the CUP Dissertation Award and it was great to receive such enthusiasm for my plan and ideas. The business plan contained different things that I’ve learnt from my MA in Publishing and to receive this from CUP is fantastic as it means that other people also see merit in my idea.
“The interesting thing about the magazine is that the target age group will change during the year. During the summer holidays, many of the language schools are full of young students studying short-term English courses, but the rest of the year there tends to be more 18-25 year olds, although this varies between different schools according to what they provide.
“The feedback from the language schools I have delivered the first issue of the magazine to has been very positive. I’m now trying to get more contributions because the ethos of The International Student Times is that it’s written by English Language students, for English Language students.
“Would I have been at this stage of my career now without completing the course? No, definitely not. The course provided both a range of industry background information and technical knowledge that has been essential in helping me to plan processes in magazine production and business.
“It has also guided me in how to analyse all the manufacturing elements of publishing, and complex knowledge areas such as publishing law. I simply would not have had the required level of awareness about the industry, and working within it, without the course.”
Beth’s dissertation has also been entered into the Association for Publishing Education’s annual best MA project prize, which is UK wide and offers the winner valuable coverage at the London Book Fair. Dr Samantha Rayner, who is the MA in Publishing Course Leader at Anglia Ruskin, said: “Beth’s commitment to the MA Publishing has been outstanding: in addition to winning the Cambridge University Press Best Dissertation prize, she has given time outside of the classroom to help run our first ever publishing conference, and launch CAMPUS, the Cambridge Publishing Society.
“In the standard of her work, and her ability to network and present a professional, efficient approach in all she does, she is in every way an ideal example of the kind of excellence the MA in Publishing at Anglia Ruskin wishes to be known for within the publishing industry. I have absolute confidence that her new venture to publish an English Language Training magazine will be a success, and look forward to following her career as it develops!”
