The BBC plans to host the quiz here in November or December (date and venue to be confirmed) and needs to find three academics who would like to take part.

For whatever academic subject the member of staff represents, there will be a matching student of that subject on the other team, to yield three pairs and three specialist subjects devolved from a particular course.

The rounds vary between specialist knowledge and general knowledge, quick-fire, bell-and-buzzer, individual questions and 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow'.

The 3rd Degree has the underlying rigour of a formal quiz combined with a light-hearted quest to discover how the students will fare against their mentors. The audience will be composed of students and academics from that University.

It’s hosted by Steve Punt, best known as a satirist on The Now Show, and is produced by David Tyler for Pozzitive Television, whose credits range from Spitting Image and Not The Nine O'Clock News to French & Saunders right through to Little Britain.

For more information on the programme, please see the BBC website.

If you would like to take part or are tentatively interested, please contact Philippa Walker in the University’s Press Office on philippa.walker@bristol.ac.uk