Die Europameisterschaft wird 2015 in Wien ausgetragen und findet damit erstmals seit 2006 wieder im Gebiet des Verbandes der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen e.V. (VDCH) statt. Während der European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) wird mindestens einmal der European Council tagen. In dieses Gremium wird aus jedem Teilnehmerland ein Delegierter entsandt. Es legt alle Regeln rund um die Europameisterschaft fest, etwa die Kriterien für den Break, bestimmt die Ausrichter der künftigen EUDC und diskutiert rund um das Turnier anfallende Probleme und Fragen. Dem Council steht der Council President vor. Marcus Ewald war im Jahr 2012/13 nach Jens Fischer der zweite Deutsche, der ...

From June 21st to June 22nd the Durham Debating Society will host the Durham Open 2014. The tournament in the North of England features 5 rounds with 7 minute speeches, semi-finals and a finals. As a special feature, all motions debated will be open motions. The policy on motions will soon be announced. Chief adjudicators (CAs) will be Rosie Unwin, finals judge at the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) and CA of, amongst others, the Oxford Women's tournament, and Steven Rajavinothan, breaking speaker at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) and the EUDC and finals judge of many tournaments, Sam Block, ...

Ashish Kumar and Michael Dunn Goekjian have won the Paris Open 2014. The final jury unanimously decided that the team from Cambridge prevailed as Opening Opposition to the following motion: This House supports the unlimited use of war-time propaganda which aims to dehumanise the enemy. The Top of the tab team Pascal A (Alon van Dam, Harish Natarajan) was in Opening Government, Belgrade A (Helena Ivanov, Stefan Siridžansky) spoke in Closing Government, and Matthew Willmore and Scott Ralston from the team Wigglypuf in Closing Opposition. [caption id="attachment_22946" align="alignright" width="400"] Michael Dunn Goekjian offers a POI while his team partner Ashish Kumar ...

From May 30th to June 1st, the SSE Riga Debate Society and the non-governmental organisation QUO tu domā? will host the third Debate Academy. The Debate Academy aims at debaters from different countries who want to learn more about debating and improve their skills. It consists of seven workshops given in four rooms simultaneously to account for different levels of debating proficiency of the participants. Afterwards, a tournament with four rounds and a final will be organsised so that the debaters can apply what they have learned. The trainers for the workshops will be Michael Shapira, Chief Adjudicator (CA) of the ...

The Berlin IV – European Debates Conference 2014 has its winners: Emilia Carlqvist and Peer Klüßendorf from Lund Debate Society won the final in a three-to-two split decision. Peer and Emilia debated in Opening Government as the team "Dixendorf". The motion of the final read: "This House believes that the EU should force member states to adopt socially progressive legislation (e. g. same-sex marriage, abortion rights, ethnic and religious minority rights)." [caption id="attachment_22745" align="alignleft" width="266"] Emilia and Peer (c) Matthias Carcasona[/caption] "REC Truth Department", another team from Sweden consisting of Olivia Sundberg and Martin Devenney, spoke in Closing Government, while the Opposition ...

Kai Dittmann began cautiously. “It often is not easy to argue for free trade,” said the 2014 World Champion in the category English as a Second Language (ESL). “But it is the marginal benefits that sum up.” Together with John Eltringham, who works at the American Academy in Berlin, he represented the government side in a public debate on the first evening of the Berlin Intervarsity. The question debated was: “Does Europe need the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?” [caption id="attachment_22722" align="alignright" width="400"] Speakers at the public debate (from left to right): John Eltringham, Kai Dittmann, Christoph Krakowiak, Rebecca Irvine ...

Das University College Cork (UCC) in Irland hat über Facebook die Bewerbung um die Ausrichtung der European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) 2016 bekanntgegeben. Das College hat 2005 bereits die Euros ausgerichtet sowie 1996 und 2009 die World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC). Die Euros sollen gemeinsam von beiden an der Universität vertretenen Debattiergesellschaften, der Law Society und der Philosophical Society, organisiert werden. Hauptverantwortlich für die Organisation sind nach Plan des Bids Ciara Grant (Convenor) von der Philosophical Society und Eoin Hickey (Deputy Convenor) von der Law Society. Die Bewerbung wird während der EUDC 2014 in Zagreb vorgestellt, wo das European Council über ...

Christine Simpson und Michael Shapira, Chefjuroren der European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015 in Wien, haben die Liste aller Kandidaten für den Posten eines Deputy Chief Adjudicator (DCA) bei den Euros veröffentlicht. Der ausrichtende Debattierklub (DK) Wien hatte am vergangenen Wochenende auch auf der ZEIT DEBATTE dafür geworben, dass Kandidaten aus dem VDCH*-Land nominiert werden. Unter den Kandidaten ist zwar der aus Deutschland stammende Peer Klüßendorf, Europameister 2013 in der Kategorie English as a Second Language (ESL). Da er allerdings in Lund, Schweden, debattiert, gibt es keine Kandidaten aus dem VDCH-Land. Von den folgenden Debattierern werden nach einer Feedbackphase, in ...

On May 31st the Tilbury House Novice will take place in Cologne, Germany. After the Magdeburg Novice Tournament it is the second English Fresher's tournament in Germany this season. It aims to encourage all those who want to make their first experiences with English Debating without having to fly to a foreign country and compete with experienced native speakers. Accordingly, speakers should not have debated for more than 1 year and should not have broken at an international tournament. The tournament will be held in BP and features 4 preliminary rounds and a final. Chief Adjudicator (CA) is Leo Münstermann, Semi-Finalist ...

From May 2nd to May 3rd the first international tournament in the history of Danish Debating will take place in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen Open 2014 will be hosted by the CBS Debating Society, Convenors are Erik Thompson (Convenor) and Jeen Chun (Deputy Convenor). It features 5 preliminary rounds with 7 minute speeches, Semi-Finals and a Final. “The tournament is designed to help foster the small debate circuit in Scandinavia”, the convenor explains on facebook. Therefore at least one of the speakers in every team has to be in their first year of university debating. The Chief Adjudicators (CAs) of the Copenhagen Open ...

Update: Registration is open until April 19th, 4 am, German Time. The registration form can be found here. The organisation committee (Org-Com) of the World Universities Debating Championships 2015 in Malaysia announced that the Registration for Malaysia Words (WUDC or Worlds) will open on Wednesday April 16th 2014 at 10am (UTC/GMT + 8, which is 4am CET). The following e-mail was sent: “To the global debating community, Malaysia Worlds 2015 will officially open registration on 16 April 2014 (Wednesday) at 10am (UTC/GMT +8). Overview The Malaysia Worlds 2015 team is happy to affirm (as was promised at Chennai Worlds 2014) that our tournament team cap will be expanded to 440 ...

From July 11th to July 13th the BBU Open will take place in Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg) in Transylvania, Romania. To give a first taste of the city and the tournament, the Babes-Bolyai University (BBU) Debate Society published this video on their website: The tournament features 5 preliminary rounds, semi-finals and a final. The Chief Adjudication team comprises of Anser Aftab (WUDC grand finalist 2011 and EUDC champion 2013), Fred Cowell (best speaker at EUDC 2010 and twice WUDC grand final judge), Karin Merckens (ESL grand finalist at WUDC 2013), Michael Shapira (future CA of the EUDC 2015), Milan Vignjevic (future CA of ...

On the 19th of April 2014, the society Aberdeen University Debater will host the "Debater: University of Aberdeen Open". The one-day tournament in the Scottish city of Aberdeen features 4 preliminary rounds and a direct break to the finale and will be CAed by Joe Dyer and Heather Whiteside. The organisers promise that the registration fee will be 20 pounds or less. It includes food, accomodation, and a social. Registration is possible until the 17th of April via this registration link or by emailing Finia Kuhlmann, who is from Hanover, at finia.kuhlmann@googlemail.com. Those who have any further questions or are interested ...

Der Debattierklub Wien, Ausrichter der Europameisterschaft 2015, hat auf seiner Webseite eine Rückschau auf das Vienna IV veröffentlicht. In dem Artikel berichtet Cheforganisator Stefan Zweiker unter dem Titel "Lessons Learnt: A Résumé on Vienna IV 2014", welche Erfahrungen die Wiener mit dem Turnier gemacht haben und was sie daraus für die European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) 2015 gelernt haben. Die Achte Minute veröffentlicht Stefans Text. Der vollständige Artikel mit allen Fotos findet sich auf der Webseite der European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015. "Lessons Learnt: A Résumé on Vienna IV 2014 From 7th to 9th March 2014, DKWien hosted the largest IV that ...

From Augst 15th to August 17th 2014, the Splitska Debatna Unija will host the Split Open 2014 in Split, Croatia. The city, founded in 300 A.D., is the second biggest city in Croatia and is situated directly on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The hosts promise beach parties and historical venues for everyone not only interested in debating. 3,5 hours by car from Zagreb, the Split Open is also designed as a preparatory tournament in the run up to Zagreb EUDC 2014. With the Ljubljana IV taking place at the same time, debaters now have a choice of tournaments ...

The registration of Independent Adjudicators for the Zagreb EUDC 2014 is now open. Everyone who wants to be a judge and has not registered for an institution may now apply as an Independent Adjudicator. The registration is open until March 30th 11pm GMT. Independent Adjudicators may receive travel subsidies according to the costs they must bear and according to their proficiency in British Parliamentary Style (BPS) debating. In addition to basic information, the applicants will therefore have to give details about their debating and judging experience and answer a set of questions. These questions are designed to test the applicants' ability ...

Die European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) wurde 1999 erstmalig ausgerichtet. Nur bei der ersten EUDC in Rotterdam waren keine Teams aus Ländern des deutschsprachigen Debattierens vertreten. Seit dem zweiten Jahr sind deutschsprachige Mannschaften konstant dabei. Nicht alle Vereine, die an der Europameisterschaft teilgenommen haben, waren bzw. sind Mitglieder des Verbandes der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen e.V. (VDCH). Der Dachverband der deutschsprachigen Clubs wurde erst 2001 gegründet, nachdem bereits 2000 und 2001 Vereine an der EUDC teilgenommen hatten. Der Club der Berliner Hertie School of Governance (HSoG) etwa hat sich immer als Teil des Debattierens im deutschsprachigen Raum verstanden, auch wenn er nie ...

Die Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament stehen vor der Tür. Am 25. Mai können die Bundesbürger zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte der EU dabei auch mit den Spitzenkandidaten der europäischen Parteienfamilien den Präsidenten der EU-Kommission mitbestimmen. Aber auch der Aufstieg der Rechten in Europa wird mit Spannung beobachtet. Unter diesem Eindruck trafen sich am vergangenen Wochenende in Berlin die 22 Ausrichter für die internationale Veranstaltungsreihe von Europadebatten Klartext Europa 2014. Diese finden in Deutschland, Österreich, Italien, Frankreich, Schweden, Spanien und den Niederlanden statt. Im Herzen Berlins im Allianz Kulturforum trafen sich die Ausrichter, um die bevorstehenden Debatten inhaltlich und organisatorisch zu ...

For the very first time, the University of Ljubljana Debate Society, Slovenia, will organise the Ljubljana IV from August 15th until August 17th 2014. The date, as well as the proximity to Zagreb (1,5h by car) make it a good prep tournament for Zagreb EUDC 2014. The tournament features 5 rounds with 7 minute speeches, a semi-final and a final. Chief Adjudicators (CA) will be Anna England-Kerr (semi-finalist at Manchester EUDC, winner of Zagreb Open, CA of Newcastle IV 2013) and Viktor Prlja (broke at Chennai Worlds, best ESL speaker at Manchester EUDC, CA of the Budapest Open). Reg fee will be ...

Marija Simić and Djordje Jovicevic are the winners of the Vienna IV 2014. On Sunday, the team Belgrado in Closing Government won the final round with the motion: "This House believes that no state, in any situation, has the right to demand, encourage or promote its citizens to fight or die for their country." The following teams broke into the final: OG: Warsaw A (Karolina Partyga, Maja Łukomska) OO: Vermont GW (Rebecca White, Mariel Golden) CG: Belgrado (Marija Simić, Djordje Jovicevic) CO: Vermont SS. (Jacob Senghas, Franny Solnick) [caption id="attachment_22239" align="alignright" width="400"] The CAs of the Vienna IV Stefan Zweiker, Christine Simpson and Nicole Loiter with ...

From the 14th to the 18th of September 2014, the Red Sea Open 2014 (RSO) will once again take place in Eilat in the south of Israel. This tournament invites debaters to combine high-level debating with a relaxing holiday trip. In the last years, participants were accommodated in an all-inclusive hotel in vicinity of the beach. Apart from that, the RSO features workshops offered by experienced debaters covering debate theory as well as various topics relevant to debating. The tournament itself will have 6 preliminary rounds, semi-finals and a final. The Chief Adjudicator will be Anat Shapira from Israel, who was CA ...

After registration has closed, the Zagreb team announced the preliminary allocation of judge and team spots for EUDC 2014. On their facebook page they wrote: "This is the preliminary list of  teams and judges allocation for institutions that have registered to participate in Zagreb EUDC 2014: http://bit.ly/1hDHmXZ The list is presented in alphabetical order for easier navigation. Institutions marked red are not eligible to compete at EUDC. Institutions marked yellow: a. it is unclear what institution (university) they have registered b. the eligibility of the registered institution needs to be confirmed When the unresolved issues have been sorted out, the institutions whose requests have been granted ...

Wie die Achte Minute bereits berichtete, werden vor den Europawahlen 2014 erstmals auch Klartext Europa-Debatten außerhalb des VDCH*-Landes ausgetragen. Christoph Krakowiak, VDCH-Vorstandsbeirat für Europadebatten, hat nach den Ausrichtern in Deutschland nun auch internationale Ausrichter gefunden. Die Publikumsdebatten werden in folgenden Städten stattfinden: Österreich: Wien, Salzburg, Graz Niederlande: Amsterdam, Utrecht Spanien: Madrid, Badajoz Frankreich: Nancy Italien: Bozen Schweden: Lund Anders als ursprünglich geplant, wird es keine Debatte in der Schweiz geben. Stattdessen wird nun eine der European Debates im schwedischen Lund stattfinden. „Da es sich als problematisch erwiesen hat, die Schweiz als Nicht-EU-Mitglied aufzunehmen, freuen wir uns sehr, dass Lund von sich aus Interesse an der Debattenserie gezeigt ...

The Organisation Committee of Zagreb EUDC 2014 has now announced the tab team of the tournament: It consists of Bob Nimmo, Richard Coates and Calum Wor. On the EUDC 2014 website, the members of the team are introduced as follows: "Bob Nimmo - Bob has worked on the tab teams of a huge number of competitions over the last decade, including assistant tab director of EUDC 2004, tab director of EUDC 2008, 2009 and 2012, tab director of WUDC 2009 and 2012. In addition, he has tabbed over 80 University and Schools level tournaments throughout the UK and Ireland. He has competed ...

The Debattierklub Wien (DK Wien) has opened an online nomination process for Deputy Chief Adjudicators (DCAs) for the European University Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015 in Vienna. From now on, every debater can nominate somebody he deems suitable to be part of the Chief Adjudicator team for the EUDC using this online form. However, as the Chief Adjudicators Christine Simpson and Michael Shapira emphasise, a nomination neither is necessary nor sufficient to be selected as DCA. The nomination process serves the only purpose of calling attention to apt candidates who do not apply on their own. The actual application process starts on ...

A VDCH*-team was the winner of the Manchester IV 2014: Lukas Thiel and Moritz Justen of Tilbury House Debating Society won the tournament in the category English as a Second Language (ESL). After four preliminary rounds, the team from Cologne was pitted against teams from Glasgow, Lund, and Dalarna in the position of Closing Opposition. The motion of the ESL-final was "This House would support a strict disciplinarian educational system, as long as it makes students perform better". The team from Dalarna, Sweden, consisting of Siri Nylund and Alva Winsa, also participated in and won the Novice final against teams from ...

Ruairidh Macintosh and Daan Welling from Leiden/St Andrews won the Lustrum Leiden Open 2014. The team with the name “Two Guys” beat 57 other teams from all over the world who attended the Dutch tournament. The decision was very narrow: The judging panel took very long to come to a conclusion, in the end favouring “Two Guys” in a 4-3 split decision. Ruairidh also was the best speaker after the five preliminary rounds, scoring 81.8 points on average and remarkable 89 points in the fifth round. The full team and speaker tab is available online. Martijn Otten, Lisa Schallenberg and Gigi ...

The registration for the Zagreb EUDC 2014 will start on Sunday, March 2nd at 12 o'clock CET and will be open for 24 hours. For the registration one should send a mail to zagreb.eudc.register@gmail.com. During the first phase of registration the convenors need the institution name, country, delegate representative name, contact e-mail and number of teams and judges. Every institution will be granted one team. The distribution of the 2nd and 3rd teams will be similar to the procedure at WUDC, that is to say allocation will be according to the instition's performance (number of ESL and open breaks) at the ...

From July 16th to 27th, 2014, the second Pécs Debate Summer Academy will be held at the University of Pécs in Hungary. The Academy aims at encouraging students from many different countries to engage with topics concerning a "transnational and glocal world" throughout debating. Over the course of 12 days, participants will develop and train their debating skills, practice debating and listen to lectures. At the end of the Summer Academy, a British Parliamentary Style tournament will be held. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="242"] The University of Pécs library, by C. Mike, via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The Summer Academy also is an International Studies ...

From Friday May 16th to Saturday May 17th, the Oxford Union will once again host the annual Women's Open Debating Competition. The tournament aims at encouraging women, who are still in the minority in the global debating circuit, to participate more actively in debating. Especially after the incidents in Glasgow last year, where female debaters in a final were publicly insulted, the Oxford Women's Open also became an important event to adress misogyny and gender-related issues in the debating world. The tournament will comprise of five preliminary rounds and a break to the semi finals. Furthermore, there will be workshops and ...