University Challenge is a quiz show in which only students at higher education institutions can enter. Each year, the programme makers contact every university in the UK to ask if they want to send a team to the programme.

There are two types of questions on University Challenge: Staters and bonuses. Starter questions are on the buzzer, and can be answered by any member of either team. No conferring is allowed. Whoever buzzes first gets to answer the question. Each starter is worth 10 points. If a player buzzes in and gives an incorrect answer, 5 points are deducted from the team's score, leading to negative scores if the team has no points.

The questions on University Challenge range from pop culture to through Shakespeare to quantum physics. In other words, the kinds of things that university students are generally expected to know. Some starter questions are designed so that it becomes progressively easier to answer the question as more of the question is read out, others go in one direction to begin with, and then run off on a tangent, tricking any player who decides to gamble on an interruption.

Each programme features two picture rounds and one music round. The picture rounds feature questions that refer to an image of some kind, such as a map or a painting. The music round questions are always accompanied by a sound of some sort, which may or may not be considered musical. For example, a recent set of questions told the players to work out the name of the vehicle from the sound that the engine of that vehicle makes.

University Challenge was first shown in the UK from 1962 to 1987 on the ITV network. For the whole of that run, it was presented by Bamber Gascoigne. In 1994 a new run of the programme started on BBC 2. This run is presented by Jeremy Paxman and is still running today.

University Challenge is made by Granada Television and is based on the american programme "College Bowl". In 2003 a spinoff of University Challenge itself, entitled "University Challenge India", was made by BBC World in India.

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University Challenge Quiz Book (Book)