Working throughout the night until 6am Friday morning, Radio LaB, the University’s community radio station, will broadcast 'Election LaB'.

Helping with the programme will be teams of the University’s student reporters at every Bedfordshire count as well as in Milton Keynes.

Also more than a dozen journalism and broadcast journalism student reporters will be based in the University’s newsroom to update Radio LaB listeners, online blogs (lutonblog and citiblog in Milton Keynes), and social media on the big stories of the night as they unfold.

They will also be helped out by students from the University's Media Arts and Production courses.

Radio LaB Coordinator Terry Lee said: "With our overnight coverage, and our particular focus on local constituencies, Radio LaB’s 'Election LaB’ will give local young people the bigger picture, with a local emphasis."

Students involved in this ambitious programme will also be supplying footage for the BBC and collaborating, through the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) with other universities across the UK overnight.

In an operation devised by University of Bedfordshire Senior Lecturer and BJTC board member Kate Ironside and the BJTC chief executive Jon Godel, Radio LaB will be able to call on student reporters in counts in Bournemouth, London, Wales, the Midlands, Northern England and Scotland as the night unfolds. In return Bedfordshire students will be providing reports for other student programmes across the UK.

Kate Ironside said: "This operation is based on the overnight operations I used to take part in while working at BBC Westminster and closely replicates industry practice, giving the students a much richer and varied experience."

The University of Bedfordshire’s election coverage doesn’t end with ‘Election LaB’. Friday 8th May also marks the launch of BedsTV, a cross department student-led online Television initiative in the University’s Creative Arts, Technologies & Science Faculty that will enable students in Media and Journalism to deliver content in a real world environment.

The channel will be launched with a live post-election debate, ‘The Nation Decided?’ aired at 2pm on bedstv.beds.ac.uk