Here's your starter for ten – how can you make sure your University Challenge team is as politically correct as possible?

Answer: impose a quota of women and transgender students for the quiz.

If you got that right, well done – as that is exactly what King’s College London are doing, in a bid to tackle the ‘male-dominated landscape’ of the show.

Students at the university said they made the rules in an effort to make their team more ‘representative of the student body’.

King’s College London impose a quota of women and transgender students for its University Challenge quiz team in a bid to tackle the ‘male-dominated landscape’ of the show and make their team more ‘representative of the student body’

But critics warned the policy could lead to prejudice.

The rules were announced in an email this week from the university’s student union, which organises the team each year.

It said that half of the team must be made up of ‘self-defining women, trans or non-binary students’.

A ‘self-defining woman’ is a person who calls themselves female, irrespective of their biological gender.

A ‘non-binary person’ is someone who does not consider themselves as either exclusively male or female, while a transgender person is someone whose gender identity is the opposite of their sex at birth. Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said: ‘The King’s College student union is being blatantly prejudiced. Universities should select the best students, whoever they are.

‘Anything else spoils the fun of the viewers who want to see the universities in open competition.’

And a female student told Private Eye: ‘I’m really annoyed about it.

‘If I do get picked, how will I know if it’s because I deserve it or because they’re trying to fill a quota?’

Jeremy Paxman (pictured) was accused of being sexist by a Reading University student who appeared on University Challenge

It is understood the ‘undermining' remarks were made during a break in the show in front of the studio audience and the opposing team, and were not broadcast

The email was sent to students by Momin Saqib, an international student who is the union’s vice president for activities and development.

It read: ‘In order to combat the male-dominated landscape of the show, KCLSU has committed to entering a team which is at least 50 per cent made up of self-defining women, trans or non-binary students.’

However, this policy doesn’t seem to have helped the university’s chances in the quiz – the same rule applied last year, when the King’s College team failed to even make it on to the show. A student union spokesman said: ‘We’re keen to make sure that our team is representative of our student body and as diverse as King’s students.’

The news comes just weeks after a rival team at Reading University announced a boycott of the show over allegations of ‘sexist comments’ made by Jeremy Paxman.

The host later said he was ‘baffled’ by the accusation because it appeared to be based on a joke he had made about a knitted mascot.



