Applying for University Challenge

University Challenge is filmed by Granada TV in Manchester and bought by BBC2. Around Christmas, Granada writes to every Student Union or Oxbridge college President inviting them to submit a team. How the team is picked is thus up to the Student Union themselves. About a third of them lose the form or don't bother with it. Another third of the Presidents pick themselves and three of their mates. The final third organise a selection quiz which they advertise round their university, and the four best entrants are picked. Of course, the final of these is the best and fairest, so hassle your SU to make sure they get round to doing one! To be eligible you are not allowed to have appeared on the show before (though one infamous exception managed to get round this rule!), and must still be a student there the year after. If you haven't received a form or need another then write to Granada.

Whichever team is chosen by the university fills in the application form, which consists of a few personal details, a photo of each of you, and about 50 trivia questions which you answer together without going to the library to look the answers up! A couple of months later you'll get an interview by Granada (pretty much everyone gets an interview) in a nearby city. They'll talk to you ask a few questions like `Why do you want to go on TV?'. I was even asked `If you had to describe yourself as a food dish, what would it be and why?' Through all this bit they just want to see you won't crack under pressure, so just be bubbly and charming. Finally you'll do a written trivia test individually, which they have recorded on a CD.

The trivia bit is by far the most important bit, and a few weeks later they'll choose the top 26 of the 200 who entered. The first round is filmed in Manchester in June or July, and later rounds as late as October or November.

There is nothing to stop an institution entering two independent teams, and some universities routinely do it, but I have to say that I wouldn't recommend it, as it might not look too organised to Granada; with hundreds of applicants they'll be looking for any excuse to bin a team. Having said that, there have been times when one of the teams has got on (obviously there's no way both would ever get on at the same time).