UCB graduate returns to campus – to film a segment for ITV news

Around 25 years ago Mark Gough, award-winning journalist for ITV news, completed a cookery course for beginners at University College Birmingham. Today he has come full-circle, returning to campus to interview top students for a segment on prime-time ITV news.

The clip, which will be aired on television around mid-June, will include a five minute piece gleaning three students’ expert advice on a specialist subject. Additionally, Mark has interviewed current university Dean Neil Rippington asking for his take on the hot topic. While the subject of the segment must, for now, remain under wraps, it is one that benefits from a wide range of expertise within the university.

Never one to miss an inside scoop, after graduating from UCB Mark went on to build an illustrious career in journalism, winning Business Journalist of the Year at the Midlands Media Awards in 2016 for his reporting on breaking stories and exclusives. He has worked on a number of different hard-hitting news programmes for ITV including ITV Central News, Central Tonight, and SCAM, a programme specialising in fraudulent crime.

Despite taking a rather different turn with his career following his course in beginner’s cookery, Mark still remembers his time in UCB’s kitchens very fondly. In a tweet recalling his favourite memories of the University in honour of its 50th anniversary this year, he called his time as a student “fabulous”.

“I am still using the skills I learnt then today at home,” he added.

Find out more about the courses now available within UCB’s College of Food.