MORE than 40 new video production students are joining Thames Valley University this autumn as the course proves to be a big success.

The video production degree in the university's Ealing campus is this year enrolling three times the number of students that attended the course last year after applications sky-rocketed.

Stephen Desmond, a senior lecturer at the university, said: "We have been deluged with applications."

Mr Desmond believes the increase in applications is largely due to last year's student successes.

In January, video student Fran Apprich, 25, won a top prize at the New York Festival with a film she made for a class assignment at the university.

She said: "My film was just a student film but it had imagination, which counts for more than knowledge and budget."