Editing University Challenge (section)

===Lowest scores===
Little is known about the lowest scores from the Bamber Gascoigne series, except that the lowest score ever was in the 1971–72 season, when the [[University of Sussex]], fresh from two series wins, managed only 10 points.<ref name="University Challenge - Statistics">{{cite web|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/stats_lowscore.html|title=University Challenge – Lowest Scores|author=Sean Blanchflower|website=www.blanchflower.org|access-date=21 February 2012}}</ref> However, a low score was also achieved by [[Victoria University of Manchester]] in their first round match in 1975 when, for much of the recording, they answered only with the names of [[Marxist]]s as a protest against the Oxford and Cambridge colleges being able to enter separate teams.<ref>{{cite news|author=Paul Gallagher |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/21/university-challenge-rules-television |title=BBC tightens University Challenge rules in response to fiasco &#124; Television & radio |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=18 April 2016}}</ref>

Under Jeremy Paxman, the lowest score achieved by a student team was also 10 which, coincidentally, was also achieved by a team from the University of Sussex, in the first round of the [[University Challenge 2021–22|2021–22 series]] when they faced the [[University of Birmingham]] who scored 245. In the same series, the lowest winning score for a student team was achieved, by [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]], who scored 85 in a quarter final against [[King's College London]] who scored 80. The second lowest losing score is 15, which was achieved by the [[University of Exeter]] in a 2008–09 quarter-final against [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford|Corpus Christi, Oxford]], whose team captain [[Gail Trimble]] answered 15 starter questions correctly. However, the Corpus Christi team were later disqualified from the competition after it was found that team member Sam Kay had been ineligible for the last three matches.<ref name="Gail Trimble's Corpus Christi stripped of University Challenge title">{{Cite periodical|title=Gail Trimble's Corpus Christi stripped of University Challenge title|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/mar/02/gail-trimble-university-challenge-team-lose-title|magazine=The Guardian|access-date=31 August 2009 | location=London | first=Leigh | last=Holmwood | date=2009-03-02}}</ref> Therefore, the second lowest score officially achieved against eligible opponents under Paxman was by [[Lincoln College, Oxford]], who totalled 30 in a semi-final against the eventual series champions the [[University of Manchester]], in an episode televised on 9 February 2009, just two weeks after the Corpus Christi vs Exeter match; this was also matched in the grand final by [[St John's College, Oxford]], against [[Peterhouse, Cambridge]], on 18 April 2016.

Before these matches, the lowest Paxman-era score was 35, reached by [[New Hall, Cambridge]], 1997.<ref name="UC lowest scores">{{Cite web|title=University Challenge – lowest scores|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/stats_lowscore.html|author=Sean Blanchflower|website=www.blanchflower.org|access-date=26 February 2008}}</ref> This score would have been lower if all deductions for incorrect interruptions had been applied.<ref>On the TV programme ''The 100 Most Embarrassing TV Moments Ever'', the New Hall performance was repeated and a member of the team said that they stopped losing points.</ref>{{better source needed|date=November 2013}}

The lowest score under Amol Rajan's chairmanship so far is 25, scored by [[Wadham College, Oxford]] in the second round of the [[University Challenge 2024–25|2024–25 series]] against the then-defending champions [[Imperial College London]], who scored 345.

The lowest score during the ''Professionals'' series was achieved by the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] team, who scored 25 in 2003.

In the 2014 ''[[Christmas University Challenge]]'' series, a team of alumni from [[Newcastle University]] finished with 25. An all-time record low score for the series was achieved in the final of the 2017 ''Christmas'' series, when [[Keble College, Oxford]], beat the [[University of Reading]] 240–0. The previous year's ''Christmas'' series saw the lowest winning score of all time, 75, scored by the [[University of Nottingham]], who defeated their opponents, the [[University of Bristol]], by just five points.