Benjamin Nuga (BA French with Chinese, 2022), has already diversified his skill set by working as a production assistant, scriptwriter, and musician and he’s also been a contestant on Countdown. Having only graduated in 2022, his achievements are centered around his willingness to step outside his comfort zone.

Two Warwick alumni have scooped the win at the StudyUK Awards that celebrates UK higher education and achievements of alumni across the world.

The prestigious international awards, hosted by the British Council, had more than 1,450 applications from 100 countries. The selected winners, who all studied at UK universities, were chosen from four categories. Kamila Lukpanova (MA Global Media and Communication, 2013) was awarded the Culture and Creativity Award and Yerkenaz Zholymbayeva (MSc Industrial Process Management, 2015) received the Science and Sustainability Award in a ceremony in Kazakhstan

The tradition of eating hot cross buns as we know them dates back to the 18th century, according to English HeritageLink opens in a new window. It has been suggested that the St Alban’s Bun, a cake local to St Alban’s, was the "ancient prototype" for the hot cross bun.

These buns are flavoured with "grains of paradise", sometimes known as Meleguata pepper and closely related to cardamom, and a cross was slashed into the dough rather than piped on.

Some historians say that bakers who marked their loaves with crosses believed it would ensure the bread rose successfully and would ward off evil spirits.

Later, it was believed that hanging loaves and buns marked with crosses that were baked on Good Friday would provide protection against evil spirits. These miraculous loaves were also believed to never mould and would last all year long until the next Good Friday came along, when they would be replaced.

The hot cross bun’s links to religion have always been quite clear - even if they haven’t always been welcome. Professor Rebecca Earle, food historian at the University of Warwick, tells Yahoo UK: "I don’t think there’s any ambiguity about hot cross buns being associated with Good Friday and therefore, Easter.

Author and academic, Professor Maureen Freely from the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick, achieved a resounding victory last night at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards in New York. Professor Freely was awarded the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize for her translation of Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü.

Benjamin Nuga (BA French with Chinese, 2022), has already diversified his skill set by working as a production assistant, scriptwriter, and musician and he’s also been a contestant on Countdown. Having only graduated in 2022, his achievements are centered around his willingness to step outside his comfort zone.

Who and what are Speakbeast all about?

We're a theatre company founded in 2023 at Warwick, making fringe theatre with a focus on small-scale/DIY-aesthetic, accessible politics, and absolute nonsense. We’re interested in creating original theatre, which focuses on queerness, transness, and what it means to be human in a mechanised world.