Horizons students feature in winning University Challenge team

by Ms Cleo Bowen, Christa Saller

16 April 2024

Three members of the Imperial College London team are CLCC Languages students.

For those of you who watched the 2023 University Challenge Final, it will be old news that Imperial College London won the competition for the fifth time, making it the most successful team in the show’s history.

University Challenge Team with host Amol Rajan and playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. — Adam Jones, Mattia Elkouby, Sourajit Debnath, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, UC presenter Amol Rajan, Suraiya Haddad and Justin Lee

What you may not know is that two of the team are current students of German:

Justin Lee, a 3rd year student of Chemistry, is currently attending German Level 4, and previously completed Levels 2 and 3.
Mattia Elkouby, team reserve and also a 3rd year student of Chemistry (with Research Abroad), is now in German Level 6, and previously completed Levels 4 and 5.

Finally, the team captain, Suraiya Haddad, a student of Medicine (2017-2023), also attended a range of Imperial Horizons language classes, including Italian, Spanish, and Mandarin.

We're confident that taking part in Horizons Language modules contributed to the incredible depth and breadth of knowledge that enabled them to win this challenging contest. Congratulations to the whole team!