Newspaper Journalism MA - City University London, advice wanted

Hi there

For the past few years I've been planning to go into journalism. I'm in my final year of a Politics and French BA degree and I am considering applying for a Master's degree in journalism, which will hopefully make it easier to enter the industry.

Right now I'm pretty much solely considering Newspaper Journalism at City University. I want to stay in London and their journalism department is very well respected from what I've heard. Another option is the News Associates Multimedia Journalism NCTJ diploma, but it is not covered by student finance so I would have to pay over 5K out of pocket which is not really possible for me. (I know some people take a year out to work before doing a Master's but I would rather finish my education as soon as possible.)

Anyway, I'm not too familiar with the process of applying for a Master's in general (first gen) so I was wondering if anyone could give me some general advice about what City wants to see from an application, what it's like studying there, whether the course is worth it etc.

Also some more specific questions:

Is the course eligible for student finance? (I'm pretty sure it is, but just checking)

The course isn't even open for applications yet but I know I will have to write a short article based on an interview, so I'm trying to decide what to do for that. It looks like you eventually have to specialise in one type of journalism during the course such as Political, Cultural etc so is it best to write an article which aligns with one of the specialisations?

Does it matter that the course isn't NCTJ accredited?

Also, I'd be open to hearing about any other options as applying to only one course is a bit daunting. I don't think I would be able to get into journalism with no specific qualifications.

In terms of work experience, I've been building up a portfolio over the past five years - I volunteered on my local newspaper, wrote for a bunch of student publications, Empoword etc , and was a News editor for a bit. I recently did a Communications internship on my year abroad that involved interviewing/article writing. I've also attended a lot of journalism talks hosted by Presspad, News Associates etc. Will this be enough?

Sorry for the long post (I like writing, lol) and any help would be much appreciated!