University Challenge: Which institutions have won the BBC quiz show the most?

University Challenge will return to the BBC on 17 July, giving some of the greatest young minds in the country the chance to put their knowledge to good use in one of the toughest quiz shows there is.

Following Jeremy Paxman's retirement as host of the programme earlier this year, Amol Rajan will now take on hosting duties on University Challenge and ask the students the show's difficult questions.

Read more: University Challenge: Amol Rajan ‘excited’ to take over from Jeremy Paxman (The Independent, 2-min read)

A number of universities and university colleges have competed on the show since it first premiered in 1963 with Bamber Gascoigne as host, but which one has won the most?

Here is everything you need to know.

University Challenge: Which institutions have won the BBC quiz show the most?

University Challenge will be back for its 53rd series (the 30th on the BBC) on Monday 17 July, and it will see 28 new student teams bring their A-game in a bid to earning the prestige of being named the winner of the competition.

The BBC has shared insight into the quiz show's former champions, ranging from its initial run with Gascoigne as host from 1962 to the rebooted version of the series with Jeremy Paxman from 1995 to the present day.

Read more: Jeremy Paxman ‘looking forward to watching University Challenge at home’ (Evening Standard, 3-min read)

Each series, student teams go head to head in a first and second round, if they succeed there then they can reach the quarterfinals, semifinals and final respectively.

As there have been so many series a few of the same universities to have won the quiz show, with some institutions taking two, three, or even four wins.

There are only three student teams to have won the quiz show four times, they are Magdalen College, Oxford, Imperial College, London, and the University of Manchester.

Durham University and Trinity College, Cambridge have three wins each, while Sussex University, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, University College and Keble College, Oxford, the Open university and Warwick University have won the show a total of two times, respectively.

There are also a number of institutions to have won the show once during the show's history, and these are as follows:

• New College, Oxford (1965)

• Oriel College, Oxford (1966)

• Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (1973)

• Bradford (1979)

• Merton College, Oxford (1980)

• Queen's University, Belfast (1981)

• St Andrews (1982)

• Dundee (1983)

• Jesus College, Oxford (1986)

• Somerville College, Oxford (2002)

• Birkbeck College, London (2003)

• Corpus Christi College, Oxford (2005)

• Christ Church, Oxford (2008)

• Emmanuel College, Cambridge (2010)

• Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (2015)

• Peterhouse College, Cambridge (2016)

• Balliol College, Oxford (2017)

• St John's College, Cambridge (2018)

• University of Edinburgh (2019)

Who has won more University Challenges, Oxford or Cambridge?

Over the show's 61-year history, Oxford and Cambridge have competed multiple times with different colleges, and the two universities have maintained a longstanding rivalry on the show.

The university with the most wins between the two is Oxford, with the university slightly edging out against its rivals by earning 16 wins on the quiz show.

Since 1962, Cambridge has won the show 11 times with its various colleges, with Trinity College winning the most titles. For Oxford, Magdalen College has won the most.

University Challenge returns on Monday, 17 July.

Watch: Jeremy Paxman signs off University Challenge for the final time.