Re your report (BBC accused of ‘hiding’ Oxbridge bias on University Challenge in deepening elitism row, 27 March), my charge against the BBC can be reduced to one simple question. The BBC’s argument is that there are around 300 “independent” colleges eligible to take part in University Challenge. How, then, for the 10 years for which there’s information on the BBC website, is there an average of 10.9 Oxbridge colleges competing each year, out of a total of 28 entrants? A yearly miracle? Or blatant favouritism by Oxbridge graduates supporting Oxbridge colleges?
If the BBC remains intransigent, let the invitation to those 300 colleges be honest. It should read: “Please participate in next year’s University Challenge, which, of course, we will be rigging in favour of Oxbridge.” Far better for the director general to intervene to save more reputational damage and drag this programme from the 1960s into the 21st century.
This row isn’t just about a quiz on the telly. It’s also symptomatic of what’s wrong with the UK: one highly advantageous rule for the privileged elite and a much inferior one for the rest of us.
Frank Coffield
Emeritus professor of education, UCL Institute of Education
Frank Coffield’s claim that multiple Oxbridge entry to University Challenge creates an unfair advantage inaptly models it as a raffle. Consider a height competition between countries. Multiple entry would not help. Only the tallest could change who wins; the other “raffle tickets” (shorter entrants) wouldn’t. The more some entrants consistently perform better than others in a game, the more it is like a height competition – the more random, the more raffle-like.
Multiple entry can mitigate upsets, so helps Oxbridge. But some teams are better than others at the quiz; Oxbridge wins often because it is actually good at it, and multiple entry splits potentially much better cross-college teams, so could still disadvantage Oxbridge overall.
Joshua Loo
Oriel College, Oxford
Would the BBC accept separate applications from the university colleges of Durham, York, Kent and Lancaster to appear on University Challenge? If not, why not? Good luck to Frank Coffield in his campaign against Oxbridge bias.
Elizabeth Swinbank
York