RGU back on University Challenge bidding for a place in the quarter-finals

No RGU team has ever reached the last eight

Author: Molly TulettPublished 9th Jan 2023

RGU will compete in the second round of University Challenge tonight for the first time in their team’s history.

The team of four made their first appearance on the BBC Two competition in November, when their win against the University of Roehampton propelled them into the next round.

This is only the second time the university has put forward a team, after their 1994 appearance ended in the first round.

Team captain, Emily Cullen, told the university how it felt to be part of the show saying: !For the first round it almost felt like we were on a studio tour to see the set and ended up answering questions all of a sudden.

"But by the end of the match we began to have the feeling of “wow” maybe we belong here after all."

RGU won with a clear lead of 210 to Roehampton’s 90 which will see them face off against the team from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Their huge lead helped with team confidence, Emily said: "That was all the more satisfying being an underdog university that hadn’t been on the show in so long with a team we’d only put together at the very last minute from the only five people who came forward to do it.

"We say it to this day though that it still feels like we got the best five people in the university to do it"

Going into the second round, the four felt much more at ease, Emily said: "we felt we could relax into the chair a bit more and really enjoy ourselves because we were just in bonus territory after initially being so excited just to make the televised stages."

To see RGU compete, tune in to BBC Two’s University Challenge on Monday 9 January at 8.30pm.

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