Crawley student appears on BBC's University Challenge and describes Jeremy Paxman as ‘nice and welcoming’

Nabil Yousif, 20 from Maidenbower entered the BBC quiz show with his team at the University of Glasgow, where he studies computer science.

This has been a big achievement for Nabil as his studies were affected by the pandemic and most of his lessons have been carried out remotely.

Nabil will make his TV appearance on the quiz show on October 3.

Nabil’s mother and father Shaheen and Fawzi Yousif said: “We as Nabil's parents are extremely proud of our son getting on his University Challenge team to represent Glasgow University. It's a very tough process!

“Nabil from an early age watched the programme with great pleasure and we never imagined Nabil would make it onto the programme himself.

“We look forward to watching him on TV.”

Nabil said: “I was very excited to appear on the programme as it was something I wanted to do for a long time.

“I’ve always been a fan of the show and when I got to university, I really wanted to apply for the team and am excited that I got my place.

“It was very nice to meet Jeremy Paxman. I’ve been watching him on TV for a long time and it was great to meet him in person and to see what he was like. Jeremy was really nice and welcoming.

“The process to get on the show is run by the quiz society at the university and they did a series of tests online. They took a bunch of people from there and did in person quizzes with buzzers. From the trails, the university chose the team that would appear on TV.

“Crawley very much shaped my education. I went to Copthorne Prep and Oriel High School, I enjoyed my time at both schools. The schools set me up to go to university and to make my appearance on University Challenge.”

University Challenge is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962.

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You can watch Nabil’s appearance on University Challenge on October 3.