Becoming a partner university

At the Imperial–Cambridge Mathematics Competition, we endeavour to allow as many university students as possible to take part in our Individual Competition. This is not possible without the help of mathematics societies/departments at other universities. If you are a mathematics society or department and you would like to become a partner university, please contact us before the 20th of November. We'll then send you a Partner Pack containing all the materials and resources you need to run ICMC at your university.

What does being a partner involve?

As a partner of the Competition, your main task is to arrange a venue for students at your university to sit Round One, which will be held this year on Sunday, 24th of November. Your full responsibilities are:

  • helping us promote the competition at your university,
  • taking registration of contestants at your university,
  • communicating your university's arrangements to your registrants,
  • booking a venue,
  • assembling a team of (student or faculty) invigilators who will be available on the day,
  • printing out copies of the contest paper,
  • providing blank paper for working and solutions,
  • scanning and sending us contestants' solutions,
  • sending us your university's contestant details.

To help you advertise your event, the Partner Pack will include posters and slideshow displays in png, pdf, or svg formats. We can also customise the promotional material for your specific venue.

What does the Partner Pack include?

  • Customised posters and slideshow slides.
  • A registration form specific to your university for you to send out to students.
  • This year's Invigilators' Guide and Contestant Information Booklet for Round One.
  • Your university's allotted Contestant IDs (CID), which you'll need to assign and distribute to contestants along with the Contestant Information Booklet.

What is the ICMC responsible for in this process?

We are responsible for composing the contest paper, marking the solutions and sending out results and prizes. We will send our contest paper to our partners in advance (the exact schedule will be communicated by email) along with instructions for invigilators. After marking is completed, we will also be happy to share the overall statistics and those specific to your institution.

What information do we need from our partners?

We require this information from our partners:

  • The email address of the ICMC Organiser at your university. Note that the ICMC Organiser can participate as a contestant if they won't be an invigilator.
  • An email address to display on our website's Registration page, which might be the same address as above.
  • The email address of the Head invigilator, which might be the same address as above. The head invigilator must be a faculty member or a student society committee member. Only the head invigilator should have access to this email address – this is crucial as we will distribute the contest paper via this email.
  • The planned start time at your university. This should be between 07:00–09:30 Sunday 24 November 2024, UTC time.
  • The planned venue at your university (you can let us know once you have confirmed your venue).

Is there a deadline to become a Partner University?

Yes, please contact us before the 20th of November, and provide all the required details above before the 22nd of November.

I am an individual wanting to participate in this year's ICMC. What can I do?

Encourage your university mathematics society (or mathematics department) to contact us. Once they become a partner you will be able to register through them.

What about Round Two?

Partner universities close to London in the UK have no responsibilities for Round Two. The highest-scoring candidates across all universities will be invited to Imperial College London for this final round. We may be able to partially reimburse travel expenses and details will be announced to invitees in due course. It is currently scheduled to take place at 10:00–14:00, on the 23rd of February, 2025, UTC time. If you think the Round Two date might not work very well for your institution due to, for example, a major event that we are not aware of, please let us know!

Partner universities further away from London may need to host Round Two as well if any of your students qualify and are not able to attend Round Two in person. Note that as fewer contestants participate in Round Two, a smaller venue is sufficient. In the past, some universities have been able to fund their round two qualifiers a trip to Imperial College London. It is unlikely that we will be able to reimbuse Round Two qualifiers from outside the UK.