Budding entrepreneurs at Huddersfield university have won cash prizes in a business competition.

Three students were among the winners in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards.

It follows the university joining Santander Universities, a global network that encompasses more than 1,000 universities in 20 countries.

Senior business advisor Philip Clegg said for the first year of Huddersfield’s membership of the network, it was decided to run an internal competition to identify the university’s entrants for the contest.

Applications – in the form of a business plan – were invited from candidates who were already receiving advice from the university’s Enterprise Team, based in The Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Centre.

In the undergraduate category, the prize went to Stephen Bond, who is now completing his degree course in advertising but already running his own enterprise, Panda’s Kitchen, which creates and markets a range of flavoured liqueurs. Stephen receives £500 from Santander.

The same amount goes to Mary Kolu Massaquoi, who was awarded the postgraduate prize.

A former nurse and midwife who has studied nutrition and public health at the university, she has written and performed a series of radio programmes titled Calls to My Sister.

The entertaining phone conversations that impart important public health messages and they have been broadcast by a number of African radio stations, earning very positive feedback. The programmes have tackled issues ranging from basic hygiene to the Ebola virus.

Now Mary – who was born in Liberia and who has worked in Africa and throughout the UK, aims to develop the concept and is receiving back up from the Enterprise Team.

A £250 runner-up prize went to Sam Forrest, a student on the BA Enterprise Development Degree, whose business named Uni Media Mash is an online trading platform for students – making it easy for members to trade university textbooks and media-related items simply and safely with each other on campus.

Mr Clegg said he was pleased that the university had made its debut in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards and in future years the business planning competition would become an integral part of the enterprise placement year that is on offer at Huddersfield.

Also built into the course will be the Santander 60-Minute Pitch contest, held four times annually.

For this, young entrepreneurs must submit short, snappy video pitches for their ideas and their entries receive online votes.

Already, a number of students have been given expert help to record their pitches to the highest-possible technical standard.