A UNIVERSITY lecturer and one of his former students have been shortlisted for a prize at the radio industry's leading awards.

Sunderland University radio lecturer Andy Cartwright and former student Kevin Cadwallender have been nominated for a Sony award.

The pair's production, Voyages, which was aired on Radio 4 last year, has been shortlisted in the feature category. The piece is made up of recorded extracts from Kevin's poetry book, written while he was writer-in-residence at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

Mr Cadwallender, originally from Hartlepool but now based in Sunderland, was at the hospital's spinal injuries unit. The book covers stories of people who spent time in the unit during his residency.

Mr Cadwallender, who graduated from Sunderland in 2003, thought the words from the book would make a good radio documentary and approached Mr Cartwright who, as well as being a lecturer, runs a radio production company called Soundscape Productions. Mr Cartwright pitched the idea to Radio 4, which aired it in August last year. The pair will find out how they got on at the awards ceremony in London on Monday.