University of Manchester quizzers win University Challenge for fifth time, becoming joint most successful in series’ history
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:42
University of Manchester quizzers win University Challenge for fifth time, becoming joint most successful in series’ history
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Harry Sharples
Communications Assistant
The University of Manchester
harry.sharples@manchester.ac.uk
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21
April
2026
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07:00
Europe/London
University of Manchester quizzers win University Challenge for fifth time, becoming joint most successful in series’ history
A conversation with contestant Ray Power
The University of Manchester’s University Challenge team have been crowned winners of the UK’s toughest quizzing tournament.
Having beaten out New College Oxford and LSE to reach the quarterfinals, from there defeating UCL and Sheffield, and sailing past Imperial with 250 points to 70 in the final semi-final round, they finally triumphed over Edinburgh in last night’s finale.
The victory is an historic one for the University, as with this fifth win (2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2025) it becomes the most successful University in the history of the competition, joint with Imperial College London.
The winning team this year was made up of Ray Power (Film Studies and English Literature), Kirsty Dickson (Medicine), Rob Faulkner (Physics with Astrophysics) and their captain, Kai Madgwick (PhD, AI and Astrophysics), along with reserve player, Argyro Olympitis (PHD in Immunology).
“
I feel really lucky to have been able to meet the rest of the team, I’ve made four really good friends. I don’t think we expected to have such a good time together!
Ray Power, University Challenge winner
„
It can feel as though there’s something mystic about acquiring a seat on the University Challenge team, a tap on the shoulder in a quiet area of the quad one day maybe, but according to Ray, that that isn’t so.
“Growing up, my Grandma was always a huge fan of University Challenge, and when a friend of mine who’d been a contestant a couple of years before told me that they were recruiting again, I signed myself up!”
After passing a first-stage online quiz, and doing herself proud in a trial match held by Quiz Society, Ray’s name was on the team sheet.
“The great thing about how UoM do it is that the whole thing is led by students. The Uni supports it, but it’s all run by Quiz Society. There’s a real sense of community, we even have contestants from previous years coming back for mentoring and to help us practice.”
Rob, Kirsty, and Ray, all took the same sign-up route to the team, while their Captain, Kai Madgwick, was already a Quiz Soc stalwart, having competed in plenty of inter-university quiz tournaments.
Once in the team, the training process is tough, spending hours each Tuesday sequestered away in a quiet part of the library, testing each other and playing along with old episodes. It wasn’t all about gruelling revision, though.
“I feel really lucky to have been able to meet the rest of the team, I’ve made four really good friends. I don’t think we expected to have such a good time together!” said Ray. “It’s hard to pick out just one highlight, but filming the trophy presentation in London was amazing, and it was so lovely to be together with the team through the whole process.”
Ray insists that it isn’t
all
down to their hard work – there’s some chance involved too, and that losing starter questions, or feeling like you don’t have the momentum of the game, can really affect the outcome. The score of the semi-final against Imperial, she says, really didn’t reflect how strong that team were, and that Manchester were lucky to have played such a great team game that round, where everybody contributed to the win.
And while there might be an element of chance, it sounds like there’s a little bit of fate in there too, with a semi-final tie against UCL seeing them ace a music round, picking out tunes from Fontaines DC, Black Midi, Squid, and Wet Leg.
“It’s so weird, Kai’s a huge Squid fan - one of the first conversations I remember having with them was about going to a Squid gig… after that music round, Squid actually shouted us out on Instagram!”
Ray says they never expected to win when they began the contest, they just kept playing and ended up in the final.
“We never expected to win, we were just happy to be there. The whole thing was nerve-wracking! It was so intense and felt so much like a super weird school trip!”
Having been beaten by Edinburgh 195 to 80 in the quarterfinals of the competition, the tournament’s last leg was a chance for the Manchester team to right some wrongs.
“Yeah, they beat us really badly. It was scary but we were happy with how far we’d already come. We knew how wonderful and clever the team from Edinburgh were, and we just went into it wanting to do our best!”
Do their best they did, and in bringing home the trophy for Manchester, they are the fifth team to do so, placing UoM at the top of the all-time leaderboard, in the company of ICL.
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Harry Sharples
Communications Assistant
The University of Manchester
harry.sharples@manchester.ac.uk
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University of Manchester quizzers win University Challenge for fifth time, becoming joint most successful in series’ history
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Latest news
23
Apr
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-
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23
Apr
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-
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23
Apr
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-
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23
Apr
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-
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UoM University Challenge team at the awards ceremony in London
Image supplied by Lifted Entertainment
Download Media Kit
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21
April
2026
|
07:00
Europe/London
University of Manchester quizzers win University Challenge for fifth time, becoming joint most successful in series’ history
A conversation with contestant Ray Power
The University of Manchester’s University Challenge team have been crowned winners of the UK’s toughest quizzing tournament.
Having beaten out New College Oxford and LSE to reach the quarterfinals, from there defeating UCL and Sheffield, and sailing past Imperial with 250 points to 70 in the final semi-final round, they finally triumphed over Edinburgh in last night’s finale.
The victory is an historic one for the University, as with this fifth win (2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2025) it becomes the most successful University in the history of the competition, joint with Imperial College London.
The winning team this year was made up of Ray Power (Film Studies and English Literature), Kirsty Dickson (Medicine), Rob Faulkner (Physics with Astrophysics) and their captain, Kai Madgwick (PhD, AI and Astrophysics), along with reserve player, Argyro Olympitis (PHD in Immunology).
“
I feel really lucky to have been able to meet the rest of the team, I’ve made four really good friends. I don’t think we expected to have such a good time together!
Ray Power, University Challenge winner
„
It can feel as though there’s something mystic about acquiring a seat on the University Challenge team, a tap on the shoulder in a quiet area of the quad one day maybe, but according to Ray, that that isn’t so.
“Growing up, my Grandma was always a huge fan of University Challenge, and when a friend of mine who’d been a contestant a couple of years before told me that they were recruiting again, I signed myself up!”
After passing a first-stage online quiz, and doing herself proud in a trial match held by Quiz Society, Ray’s name was on the team sheet.
“The great thing about how UoM do it is that the whole thing is led by students. The Uni supports it, but it’s all run by Quiz Society. There’s a real sense of community, we even have contestants from previous years coming back for mentoring and to help us practice.”
Rob, Kirsty, and Ray, all took the same sign-up route to the team, while their Captain, Kai Madgwick, was already a Quiz Soc stalwart, having competed in plenty of inter-university quiz tournaments.
Once in the team, the training process is tough, spending hours each Tuesday sequestered away in a quiet part of the library, testing each other and playing along with old episodes. It wasn’t all about gruelling revision, though.
“I feel really lucky to have been able to meet the rest of the team, I’ve made four really good friends. I don’t think we expected to have such a good time together!” said Ray. “It’s hard to pick out just one highlight, but filming the trophy presentation in London was amazing, and it was so lovely to be together with the team through the whole process.”
Ray insists that it isn’t
all
down to their hard work – there’s some chance involved too, and that losing starter questions, or feeling like you don’t have the momentum of the game, can really affect the outcome. The score of the semi-final against Imperial, she says, really didn’t reflect how strong that team were, and that Manchester were lucky to have played such a great team game that round, where everybody contributed to the win.
And while there might be an element of chance, it sounds like there’s a little bit of fate in there too, with a semi-final tie against UCL seeing them ace a music round, picking out tunes from Fontaines DC, Black Midi, Squid, and Wet Leg.
“It’s so weird, Kai’s a huge Squid fan - one of the first conversations I remember having with them was about going to a Squid gig… after that music round, Squid actually shouted us out on Instagram!”
Ray says they never expected to win when they began the contest, they just kept playing and ended up in the final.
“We never expected to win, we were just happy to be there. The whole thing was nerve-wracking! It was so intense and felt so much like a super weird school trip!”
Having been beaten by Edinburgh 195 to 80 in the quarterfinals of the competition, the tournament’s last leg was a chance for the Manchester team to right some wrongs.
“Yeah, they beat us really badly. It was scary but we were happy with how far we’d already come. We knew how wonderful and clever the team from Edinburgh were, and we just went into it wanting to do our best!”
Do their best they did, and in bringing home the trophy for Manchester, they are the fifth team to do so, placing UoM at the top of the all-time leaderboard, in the company of ICL.
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