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The rules? BBC gets starter for 10
Anna Davis and Peter Dominiczak4 Mar 2009
The BBC was today under increasing pressure to clarify University Challenge rules after it emerged that four out of the last nine winning teams should have been disqualified.
It comes after this year's winning team, Oxford's Corpus Christi, was stripped of its title because team member Sam Kay had already graduated when the final shows were recorded and was no longer a student.
But it has now emerged that three other teams which have won the televised competition since 2001, including one London university, have fielded ineligible players in the final.
Charles Markland, 23, revealed he transferred from Christ Church to Balliol College Oxford halfway through last year's competition. The Christ Church team went on to win the contest.
Mr Markland claimed his team captain told a researcher on University Challenge about the possible change and was told it was not a problem.
He said: "At the initial auditions in May 2007, my team captain informed the television researcher in charge of conducting the written entry test for teams that I might be at a different college before the series had concluded filming. He was told that this was not a problem, nor a barrier to entry for our team.
"Our captain contacted a researcher again by telephone prior to the filming of the quarter finals to explain that I was no longer at the same college. He was told that for continuity purposes, Granada wished us to field the same team regardless, and that my move was not a problem."
Siegfried Hodgson, a member of the Imperial College team that won in 2001, has admitted that half his team were ineligible. The 29-year-old claimed two members of his team were on one-year masters courses and had therefore graduated by the time the final was filmed.
Mr Hodgson said: "We were completely upfront about this with the production team and there was never any suggestion we broke any rules."
The captain of the 2004 winning team from Magdalen College Oxford, Freya McClements, also left her college by the time the final was filmed and was registered as a student at the University of Dublin when she led her team to victory over Gonville and Caius College Cambridge.
A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC had not been told about these alleged transgressions at the time and so was not in a position to do anything about them."
Reader views (5)
If you're a registered student at the competing University at the beginning of recording, that should be enough, regardless if you leave. Otherwise it could be difficult to get a suitable team.
I'm pleased University Challenge is getting all this great publicity though. It's a great show.
- Paul, Bromley, 04/03/2009 18:53
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Unless it is re-introduced with a series running over an academic year with only undergraduates taking part it is n danger of becoming as big a farce as the boat race!
- Michael, London, 04/03/2009 17:35
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I competed in "University Challenge" in the good old Bamber Gascoigne days (1972 to be exact). Three of our team members were in the third (final) undergraduate year and did not go on to further studies. It did not matter though because the competition period was not so odd and protracted as it seems to be nowadays and it was all completed within one academic year so we were all undergraduates at the same college at the end and the beginning. And, incidentally, in those long ago days, it was somehow assumed that this was essentially a competition for undergraduates rather than those pursuing Ph.Ds or other graduate courses.
- Mary, London, 04/03/2009 16:24
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This story just gets stranger and stranger. I mean, why was this years team disqualified, and the others not? And no, I don't believe the "we didn't know" line, that's just pathetic.
- Juma, london, uk, 04/03/2009 15:15
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This makes a mockery of the BBC's pathetic "hard-line" stance against Corpus Christi. This rule is simply not workable and should be abandoned. Those sticklers for the rules should reconsider their position. Amnesty for all past teams should be declared forthwith. The only reasonable, workable rule is for contestants to be students at the relevant college or university when the contest begins. Students have no control over the length of time it takes the BBC to run and conclude the contest and can't reasonably foresee their status several terms in advance.
- Bloke, London, 04/03/2009 14:38
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