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We're truly honoured to be a global university. We're equally proud of our British roots, so we always use British English, even if we're writing for an international audience.

This means "-ise" and never "ize"'; "-our" and not "-or"; "-re" and not "-er":

My favourite is the courgette cake – it has a very distinctive flavour.

Everything was sterilised at the sanitising centre.

Bothersome words and how to spell them:

  • accommodation

  • ageing

  • among (never amongst)

  • biased

  • Clearing (always capitalise if referring to admissions)

  • elearning

  • email newsletter (or just newsletter)

  • email (lower case and no hyphen)

  • enquire/enquiry (preferred to inquire/inquiry)

  • extracurricular

  • fundraising

  • government (always lower case)

  • groundbreaking

  • instalment

  • internet (lower case)

  • interdisciplinary

  • judgement (moral, academic etc)

  • judgment (legal decision only)

  • liaise

  • liaison

  • offer-holder

  • postgraduate

  • principal (noun or adjective: chief, main, head)

  • principle (noun only: ethical standpoint)

  • program (computer applications only)

  • programme (schedule of events)

  • supervisor

  • undergraduate

  • webpage

  • website

  • wellbeing

  • while (never whilst)

  • wifi (not WiFi of Wi-Fi)

If something's not covered here, follow Guardian style. If the Guardian fails you, we recommend using the Oxford English Dictionary for spelling and Fowler’s Modern English Usage for grammar.