South Africa is currently applying to host the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) in 2017. Should the bid be successful, Dessislava Kirova would form the Chief Adjudication panel, together with Gemma Buckley from Australia and Syed Saddiq from Malaysia. Anne Gaa spoke with her about her plans for the Worlds.Achte Minute: How did you get to be nominated by the South African OrgCom? Is there a special relationship between the German and South African debating communities?Dessislava Kirova: It was quite surprising. At the Paris Open 2013, I met someone who was, at that time, part of the organizing team. That connection ...

The Organising Committee (OrgCom) of the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) 2015 in Vienna published their call for international volunteers. Everyone can apply to support the existing crew and be part of the this year's EUDC.Stage one of the application process consists in reading the International Crew Recruitment Guideline and filling out the International Crew Recruitment Survey. In stage two beginning in mid-April, the OrgCom will contact the applicants if they have questions or need their expertise and knowledge. Stage three is the tournament itself.Everyone can apply for being an international volunteer - the OrgCom emphasizes that age, ...

Shortly after this year's World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) in Malaysia, Gemma Buckley wrote down her thoughts on the topic of discrimination based on language skills and the existing power structures in the debating community. Her article caused a broad debate on that issue on Facebook. She allowed the Achte Minute to republish it on this blog. You can discuss it here or add a comment to the existing discussion. Judging at this year's WUDC was an eye opening (and occasionally devastating) experience for me, as has been made clear through my recent posts on Facebook. After many took offense to ...

The World Universities Debating Championship 2015 in Malaysia has its champions:And the winners are...The Open CategorySydney A (Edward Miller, Nick Chung) won the final in the Open Category. They debated the motion "This House believes that humanitarian organisations should, and should be allowed to, give funding, resources or services to illegal armed groups when this is made a condition for access to vulnerable civilians." and won against Oxford A (Patrick Bateman, Natasha Rachman) in Opening Government, BPP A  (Steven Rajavinothan, Michael O'Dwyer) in Opening Opposition and Harvard A (Bo Seo, Fanelesibonge Mashwama) in Closing Opposition. The final was adjudicated by Shafiq Bazari (chair), Dominic ...

Team break Out of the contingent of the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies (VDCH) we are very happy to report the break of one team at this year’s Worlds in Malaysia! In the category "English as a foreign language" (EFL) the team Potsdam A (comprised of Mathias Hamann and Moritz Kirchner) broke in 4th place with 14 team points in total. The next round for them will be the EFL Semi Final on Friday, 2 January 2015. It will take place at 1 pm local time in Malaysia (which translates into 6 am local time in Germany) and will ...