University Challenge

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You're more than welcome, Bbm.

[Richard Barrett]

My father went to Queen's College Cambridge.

Yes and my father left school at 16. So what?

[subcontrabass]

My father went to Queen's College Cambridge.

Did you mean Queens' College? (See https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at...hat-apostrophe )

[Stanfordian]

Did you mean Queens' College? (See https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at...hat-apostrophe )

Goodness me! Pulling someone up for an apostrophe!

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes, the position of traditional elites at the top of the hierarchy is triumphantly confirmed. Hurrah!

The list of winning teams since 1963 seems a pretty good scatter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Challenge (you need to scroll down a bit). Since the programme re-started in 1995, Oxbridge colleges have won 15 times, "others" 10 - the "others" including Manchester with 3 wins, the Open University, Birkbeck, Imperial, Warwick, Durham, Open - some of those with huge 5-figure student bodies to choose from, against just a few hundred in your typical Oxbridge college - which perhaps supports your "elite" label. But in what respect are they elite? We don't know the back stories of the winning team members - except one of them American with previous experience of TV quizzing but that's about it (a bit like the Boat Race ). Are they elite before they go, or is this status conferred upon them by going there? (here, we're presumably looking at schools attended, socio-economic background, selection procedure to the institution, team selection (in the late 60s this was a drunken session in the JCR, but I believe it's all a bit more professional these days...).

The Huff Post lists 10 of the most successful teams/institutions, by criteria I haven't quite grasped but 4 of the 10 are Oxbridge.

[vinteuil]

Goodness me! Pulling someone up for an apostrophe!

... and indeed only a modern xixth century thingummy.

These upstart cantabrigiensians ca'n't even get a proper hold on historicall spelynge.

[ ... tho' on the nite they were damned good. Poor old Merton ]


.

[BBMmk2]

Did you mean Queens' College? (See https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at...hat-apostrophe )

Oh right! yes! Good for punctuation watch!

[LMcD]

Lots more University Challenge statistics in the current Radio Times - also available on the website.

[Richard Barrett]

The list of winning teams since 1963 seems a pretty good scatter

I was just really reacting to Bbm's previous post in maybe a too provocative kind of way, actually I really don't have any interest one way or the other in University Challenge or any other kind of competition...

[teamsaint]

Yes, long live mediocrity eh?

The assumption, by some , of mediocrity outside of the “ traditional elites at the top of the hierarchy” seems to me to be a significant issue, not least in students making the best choices to develop their particular talents.

A bit like grammar schools , the lure is awfully hard to resist, even though it may not in fact be the most suitable choice.

[jean]

My father went to Queen's College Cambridge.

Yes and my father left school at 16. So what?

So any institution one has a personal connexion with is interesting for that reason alone?

[Serial_Apologist]

So any institution one has a personal connexion with is interesting for that reason alone?

I was born at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. The fact that people much more "important" than me have been born there in recent times holds no interest in the place for me.

[jean]

Yes, but isn't winning University Challenge interesting in a way that a royal birth is not?

If it were not so, this board would have nearly a thousand posts on the subject of royal births.

But it doesn't even have any. (Unless you count those few speculating on what the child might be called.)

[ardcarp]

Much mention of 'elites' above. I always try to bear in mind that questions set in UC require a certain sort of intelligence and a certain body of knowledge. (Same goes for crossword puzzles.) Who's to say that...taking an extreme example...an aboriginal from the bush in Australia doesn't have equally valid intelligence and an equally valid body of knowledge which has enabled successful survival for several thousand years in his/her environment?

I'm not knocking UC. Mrs A and I love it, even if we only manage about 5% of the answers. But it is by an elite for an elite.

[jean]

...I always try to bear in mind that questions set in UC require a certain sort of intelligence and a certain body of knowledge...

And a good memory.

I don't find UC very interesting at all and I never watch it, but I decided to do some research to see how my old university had fared.

I feel obliged to tell you this:

[Exeter] University's team managed what is thought to be the worst score on BBC2's University Challenge quiz show for more than 30 years – a measly 15 points.

Their opponents, Oxford University's Corpus Christi, wiped the floor with them, scoring 350.