UPDATED: 29th of September, 2017.
Strathclyde students won their first televised round on BBC’s University challenge this Monday.
The show saw Strathclyde going head to head with London Imperial College.
Strathclyde beat London Imperial with an impressive 145 to 125 defeat.
The game mates, Alasdair Logan, Paul Dijkman, James Flannigan and Ian Brown qualified for the second round of the quiz show. They are one of four teams to have progressed further in the television series.
Five Strathclyde students have been selected to compete on BBC’s University Challenge 2017.
In the programme, students from universities across the UK will go head to head, answering a series of questions covering a broad range of subjects, from classical music to chemical engineering.
Strathclyde’s first battle on the 25 September will be against London’s Imperial College. Moderated by quizmaster Jeremy Paxman, it will be broadcast on BBC Two at 8pm.
Alasdair Logan (Mechanical Engineering), Paul Dijkman (Economics), James Flannigan (Chemical Engineering), Ian Brown (Secondary Education) and the team’s reserve Francis Berryman (Immunology and Microbiology) will be competing for Strathclyde with the name Team Captain.
Strathclyde is one of 28 institutions that will compete on the show this year. This is the fourth time the university’s representatives made it onto television. Team Captain was selected by 2017’s University challenge’s producers from a pool of 130 higher education institutions.
The team’s selection was facilitated by Student Activities Administrator Susan Miller, who organises the University Challenge trials each October, entailing taking students through various tests and interviews.
Miller points out that requirements are really high to be able to take part. “I have worked here for nine years and each year we have fielded a team to the knockout section in Edinburgh. Only a couple of teams have progressed to filming the show in Manchester.”
Team Captain, Alasdair Logan, said: “Our goal was to prove that, while Strathclyde is a self-professed ‘Place of Useful Learning’, it also welcomes those who celebrate knowledge not as a means, but as an end in itself.”
“The support we’ve received from students and university staff has been incredible, and certainly shows the immense pride that people have towards us and the University. My teammates and I are really excited for everyone at the university to see our appearance on the programme.”
There will be new try-out sessions for the next round of University Challenge in 2018, held in late October at Strathclyde Students’ Association.
By Morgan McBain
