Students from RGU in Aberdeen are taking on the brightest in the UK as part of the BBC’s University Challenge.
A team from the Robert Gordon University beat London’s Roehampton University by 210 points to 90 in an episode aired in late November.
It was RGU’s first appearance on University Challenge, hosted by veteran TV presenter Jeremy Paxman, since 1994.
Emily Cullen captained the team, which was also made up by Donald Anderson, Faye Cooke and Samuel Fregene – with Faye Cooke on standby.
‘University Challenge was my absolute favourite’
Miss Cullen, who studied pharmacy at RGU and is now a trainee pharmacist at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, told The Press and Journal that University Challenge was one her favourite quiz shows growing up in Ireland and that she watched it at her grandmother’s house, as she did not get the BBC in her own home.
She said: “I’d always have great fun up there playing along with the various quiz shows and University Challenge was my absolute favourite. I’d feel so happy getting any of them right and my uncle Dinny would nudge me and say ‘you should go on that’ if I was doing well.
“It was lodged somewhere in the back of my brain to try and go on it if I ever got the chance. Last Christmas, I was really enjoying watching the celebrity version and was in my last year of university, so I thought, ‘why not see if I could, it’s my last chance’.”
Miss Cullen then e-mailed the BBC show’s producer, as well as the RGU students’ union. A producer got back to her to say that if the university could get a team together, then they would be able to audition in Edinburgh at the end of the month.
The union got back to her to say that another student, Donald Anderson, had inquired about a team and she contacted him about setting one up together.
Took a call during a shift at Boots to hear that they had been successful
More than 100 universities auditioned for a place on University Challenge, with only 28 making the final cut for the series. The RGU team was “completely stunned” to make it.
Miss Cullen said: “You can imagine my surprise when I took a call during my Friday evening shift at Boots to tell me I was going to be on the telly.”
Urging university students to apply, Miss Cullen added: “It was such a thrilling ride to be on and it carried itself along with such beautiful momentum that the nerves just dissipated. It began to feel like the most normal thing in the world to be sitting there in front of the glare of the studio lights chiming in with answers as if I was sitting at home on the couch.
“The friendships we made along the way and the memories of the experience will last forever and I’ll have stories for the pub till the day I die.”
‘I’ll have stories for the pub till the day I die’
Samuel Fregene, who became the first ever participant from Nigeria to appear on University Challenge during the team’s appearance, said he had loved the experience.
Mr Fregene, who studied a masters in analytical science, said he decided to take part in the competition after being motivated by his research supervisor who told him to “see more in you than you see in yourself”.
Mr Fregene said he also took part in the show as a way of “uplifting the image of RGU”, adding: “My participation in the University Challenge competition allowed me to garner new experiences and memories of a lifetime. I look forward to leveraging this opportunity even as I turn my attention to the next phase of my career.”
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