in thinking University Challenge should be for UNDER graduates?

[NotnOtter]

more and more I am noticing older students on the teams
Seems a little unfair......

I was actually at university before I realized how they were sitting in real life.

This is one of the many reasons I've never been on it.

I think calling Paxman's blatant bias is part of the appeal of watching. And randomly choosing which side to support on the basis of how un-wankerishly they manage to say their names. I like the double-barreled ones.

tunip a friend of mine got to the finals in university challenge and went on to be in a series winning Only Connect team

we're not worthy :-)

Yes, I see your point, Paraniodandriod. So by the same definition would, for example, Thomas Jefferson be called British as he was born when Virginia was a colony of Britain?

However, I thought it tactless and arrogant to pronounce Lord Rutherford British without acknowledging his country of birth. Particularly as he studied in nz to post-graduate level. It's not like he buggered off after primary school.

I suppose the difference there is that Rutherford almost certainly considered himself to be British, and personally I think its a little tactless and arrogant to post-humously redefine as being born in a country that didn't technically exist at the time he lived there.

I do think that University Challenge should be just undergrads and while we are at it it should only be undergrads in The Boat Race as well.

Bringing in some Masters or Doctoral student on some rowing scholarship for one year and then rowing The Boat Race and into the Olympics the following year means it is not really about the students at the Universities at all. Its just about who can bring in the biggest Olympians.

national identity tends to precede political independence.

I would be very surprised if people from New Zealand identified themselves only as British until, what, 1947. Didn't work that way with any other colonies.

He was a long time before 1947 though, and had English parents, moved to England, and was knighted and became a baron. Not sure you can really decide now from a modern perspective that he was a Kiwi. Its highly unlikely he thought of himself in such terms.
Anyway, the answer in the quiz was correct is the point.

Well, interestingly, Rutherford's coat of arms includes a kiwi and a maori warrior which would suggest he considered himself a New Zealander. As well as going back to be married there to another New Zealander. And regularly going back to visit family.

I think it should be just for post-grads.... who wants to know what people who don't know anything yet know?

Is confused, sitting down now.

And though the answer to the quiz might be technically correct, it was inaccurate and not to the high standard that UC likes to give the impression of having.

How can it be both correct and inaccurate, habloodyha? He was legally British, and as no-one here knew him and his views on empire and independence and identity, the legal situation has to be the one which determines whether or not UC was right.

Leaving aside questions of tact, obviously.

limited I thought that too!

Love UC. Restores one's faith in education. Feels really great when one can pull the occasional answer out of a dusty drawer at the back of the brain

If its correct its not inaccurate. It's only your feelings on the matter that give you that odd perspective. Rutherford was a British citizen, a British peer, an was buried in Westminster near other British scientists. He was British, and the answer is entirely correct.

But was the question 'English' or 'British'? Rutherford was unarguably British but arguably not English.

Anyway, can't stand Paxo on UC. Have you ever caught him being sneery with a student who's given the wrong answer, and something about what he says betrays that he knows bloody nowt about it himself?

Apparently it's not that unusual for students to dispute the answers and they occasionally have to stop and cut bits out. I always feel sorry for the students when he either says something daft like 'ah, nuclear fusion, yes, it's nuclear fission but I'll accept that' (ok, it's never been quite that bad but obviously he knows fuck all about science), or when he rejects an answer and you can see from the student's face they were right all along.

But it's still good TV.

I do find it depressing it's rarely 50/50 men and women though, I really notice it.

YABU to declare that you should decide the rules for a game that you have nothing to do with.

But we do know what Rutherford himself thought on the matter. He said in 1925 that he had always been proud of being a New Zealander.

He was known as Lord Rutherford of Nelson though technically he was Lord Rutherford of Nelson and Cambridge.

and his father was Scottish, not English.

I think the appropriate thing in the context of the quiz would be to accept British or New Zealander as an answer and mention that he was both.

(sorry, have been hunting through physicist biographies - I did not know any of the above yesterday. I have also discovered that he was in favour of women's admission to Cambridge University and the President of a committee that helped displaced Jewish academics, so clearly a Good Egg.)

In favour of women's admission to Cambridge? That settles it, he can't have been British!

I do like it when you find out random, likeable facts about people.

Well, I like to see bright young things. Too many hairy old dudes. That's what spoilt Who Wants to be a Millionaire? It got so it was just a succession of beardy pub quiz blokes.

I like Only Connect too. Am in mighty awe of the Crossword Addicts who might just be the cleverest three people in the whole of the universe.

Don't the young get enough tv face time? Are old people not welcome anywhere?

The only thing I think is unfair is the fact Oxford and Cambridge are allowed to enter multiple teams using the college system. No wonder they always win when othe runiversities are only allowed to enter one team, but they can enter teams under the colleges meaning they can enter over ten teams.

Kelly
London University do too
and if Oxbridge were just two teams, only a united London team would EVER beat them as they are both mahoosive universities full of dead clever people

That would depend on how much you consider it a game of skill and how much you think it is a game of luck, wouldn't it?

If it is a game of luck, then more teams => more chance to win.

If it is a game of skill, then smaller pool of people to pick from for each team => each team is not as good as they would be if the whole university played just one team