Is there a possibility that the questions on University Challenge are skewed towards the kinds of things that the privately educated types that tend to go to Oxford and Cambridge?
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It’s so blatantly obvious. You would have to be a genuine moron to believe the BBC’S denial here.
Students of elitist universities do well at elitist quiz show shock.
Whats more troubling is how these people end up disproportionately running the country … mainly into the ground.
Well if the other Universities can barely win with loads more people to choose from they’d have no chance if they were split into more teams.
It’s a quiz show, why is anyone surprised the good universities do well?
They should probably even it up a bit by letting other universities enter more than one team. So you could have, for example, Manchester A, B, and C.
But if they do that, then many Universities won’t have a chancenof even getting on it. It would be dominated by Oxbridge and the Russell Group, most likely.
Also, whilst I appreciate that entering more teams makes it more likely an Oxbridge team will win, if a large university with 10k+ students loses to an Oxbridge college with 200 students, that is still pretty impressive for the Oxbridge college.
Two thoughts on this; I’ve always asked the question too. 1, if we’re going the college route, why don’t places like Durham and Lancaster which also have constituent colleges, also enter these?
And 2, if Oxford and Cambridge would be forced to enter joint teams, so four people from across all their colleges, I’ve a feeling they would absolutely brutalise everybody else, in fact guaranteeing an Oxbridge final and eventual winner.
So I don’t know. File it under “it’s traditional”?
It is definitely skewed more towards the classics and that is going to trip over a lot of state school kids from even making the team, let alone doing well on the show. You would get people complaining if they made it easier for non-Oxbridge universities though, with people saying other universities just need to study harder before the show.
As far as I know Toxteth O’Grady still holds the record for biggest bogey
For those who haven’t read the article, it’s not about the questions, it’s about the entry options.
Most universities only get to send a single team. As the teams are based on degree awarding body.
Oxbridge can send over 70 potential teams, as each college gets its own team, despite the colleges themselves not being the degree awarding body.
Other constituents colleges from other universities are not afforded this option.
Letting all the individual colleges compete proved that to be the case years ago.
14 comments
Been saying this for years, however it’s also a fact that there will be much quality in the Oxbridge teams.
They’re right, I’ve only seen it once but the people from Oxbridge were awful
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysG96dUtGh4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysG96dUtGh4)
Is there a possibility that the questions on University Challenge are skewed towards the kinds of things that the privately educated types that tend to go to Oxford and Cambridge?
[deleted]
It’s so blatantly obvious. You would have to be a genuine moron to believe the BBC’S denial here.
Students of elitist universities do well at elitist quiz show shock.
Whats more troubling is how these people end up disproportionately running the country … mainly into the ground.
Well if the other Universities can barely win with loads more people to choose from they’d have no chance if they were split into more teams.
It’s a quiz show, why is anyone surprised the good universities do well?
They should probably even it up a bit by letting other universities enter more than one team. So you could have, for example, Manchester A, B, and C.
But if they do that, then many Universities won’t have a chancenof even getting on it. It would be dominated by Oxbridge and the Russell Group, most likely.
Also, whilst I appreciate that entering more teams makes it more likely an Oxbridge team will win, if a large university with 10k+ students loses to an Oxbridge college with 200 students, that is still pretty impressive for the Oxbridge college.
Two thoughts on this; I’ve always asked the question too. 1, if we’re going the college route, why don’t places like Durham and Lancaster which also have constituent colleges, also enter these?
And 2, if Oxford and Cambridge would be forced to enter joint teams, so four people from across all their colleges, I’ve a feeling they would absolutely brutalise everybody else, in fact guaranteeing an Oxbridge final and eventual winner.
So I don’t know. File it under “it’s traditional”?
It is definitely skewed more towards the classics and that is going to trip over a lot of state school kids from even making the team, let alone doing well on the show. You would get people complaining if they made it easier for non-Oxbridge universities though, with people saying other universities just need to study harder before the show.
As far as I know Toxteth O’Grady still holds the record for biggest bogey
For those who haven’t read the article, it’s not about the questions, it’s about the entry options.
Most universities only get to send a single team. As the teams are based on degree awarding body.
Oxbridge can send over 70 potential teams, as each college gets its own team, despite the colleges themselves not being the degree awarding body.
Other constituents colleges from other universities are not afforded this option.
Letting all the individual colleges compete proved that to be the case years ago.