University Challenge is a televised quiz competition in which teams of students take part representing their universities or colleges. It’s produced by Lifted Entertainment (a division of ITV Studios), and broadcast on BBC2 and iPlayer.

UC is one of the oldest programmes still airing on UK television, and its rules and format have changed very little since it first aired in 1962! Each series is a single tournament, consisting of six rounds of head-to-head matches, with 28 teams taking part. Gameplay revolves around ‘starters for ten’ - questions that all players compete to answer on the buzzer, with the aim of winning their team ten points and a round of bonus questions.

You can watch past episodes of the programme here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006t6l0/university-challenge

What does taking part involve?

To make up a team, you need five players: four main team members, with one nominated as captain, and a reserve player, who would be able to step in to replace a main team member if they become unavailable at any point during the recording process.The series is recorded at Dock10 Studios in MediaCityUK in Salford, over three ‘blocks’:

• 24th February 2026 to 27th February 2026 inclusive (Round One)
• 25th March 2026 to 27th March 2026 inclusive (Repechage and Round Two)
• 21st April 2026 to 23rd April 2026 inclusive (Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and Final)

Filming takes place largely between 9am and 7pm, and it takes around three hours to prepare for and film one episode. In the later stages of the competition, teams may be required to film more than one episode in a day, and potentially on multiple days back-to-back. The maximum number of episodes a team could be required to film in total is eight!

On the application form for the TV show, all team members (including the reserve player) will be asked to confirm that they are potentially available to attend all the filming dates above. If you’re interested in taking part, but are not available for one or more of those days, please contact University Challenge before applying to check whether this would be a barrier to your participation.

You’ll be able to claim back reasonable travel and food expenses incurred in the course of taking part in recordings, and they will arrange and pay for hotel accommodation for the recordings if you need it.

How will Durham University try-outs work?

We will be running a number of try-out sessions over October & November, one in each faculty and one based in Dunelm House. You will be required to sit a written exam. You will be given a maximum of two hours to complete the exam (but you can finish sooner). Dates for the try-outs are:

• Faculty of Arts & Humanities: Monday 27th October, ER147, 17:30-20:00 
• Faculty of Science: Tuesday 28th October TLC117 18:00-20:30
• Faculty of Social Science: Wednesday 29th October PCL054 14:00 - 16:30
• Faculty of Business: Wednesday 29th October WB-0003-0004 15:00-17:30 
• General: Dunelm House, date TBC

The top 20 scoring participants across all sessions will then proceed to the buzzer round! For this round, you will be placed into teams of 4 and will compete against other teams. The top 4 players from across all teams (plus 1 reserve) will then be entered as Durham University’s 25-26 team for the University Challenge programme.

How do auditions for the show work?

University Challenge aim to audition all teams who make a complete application.

For this series, auditions will be held over the period Wednesday 7th January 2026 to Tuesday 27th January 2026. There will be a number of different slots available to attend at a number of locations around the country - University Challenge will liaise with Team Captains to find a time and place that works for their team. Teams will be able to claim back reasonable travel expenses incurred in the course of attending their audition.

Each audition lasts around an hour, and has two parts:

1. A 40-question general knowledge test
2. An informal chat with the selection panel, in which they’ll be looking to learn more about your team and how you got to this point.

It’s really important to us that, wherever possible, all team members (including the reserve member) attend the same audition slot in person. We’d be grateful if all teams would make best efforts to enable this. However, if exceptional circumstances mean this may not be possible, please let us know as soon as possible and we can discuss alternative arrangements.

University Challenge will be aiming to let teams know the final outcome of their application early in the week beginning Monday 2nd February 2026.