Student television in the United Kingdom

Student television in the United Kingdom is the act of students from universities and colleges around the United Kingdom producing and publishing video content independently, operating in a similar fashion to a small television station. Student television stations exist all around the United Kingdom.

Content is not generally output across traditional media, as a broadcast licence may be prohibitively expensive to small non-profit organisations. Most student television stations use the Internet as a primary method of distributing content; either on a dedicated website, via their university's pages or on video sharing sites such as YouTube. Student television encapsulates a variety of different programming styles and techniques: from large stations funded by their universities who broadcast into student accommodation and buildings, to a single student uploading occasional shows to the web.

Some student stations are affiliated with The National Student Television Association (abbreviated NaSTA), which has forty member stations. The association holds an awards ceremony once a year to reward the best work submitted by the member stations across a number of categories.

Some student television stations in the United Kingdom pre-date the founding of national broadcasters like Channel 4 (1982) and Five (1997). Glasgow University Student Television was the first student television station to be founded in the United Kingdom, in 1964. It is the oldest student television station in Europe. Although technically, a station was founded in the United States that predates GUST, this station was staff run for students. This means that GUST is the oldest student-run student television station in the world.York Student Television and Guild TV, the University of Birmingham's Television Station, followed in 1967, and was the first station to be started in England.

Prior to the advent of digital video technology, particularly editing software, a student television station was costly to run and the programmes were difficult to edit. As digital technology became more available and its cost reduced, it became possible for student societies to move to digital video production.

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