Spring has just begun, but you better take care about this year’s end already: Registration for World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC or Worlds) starts this Saturday, March 31, at 3pm Berlin time (GMT +2). Dessislava Kirova, participant affairs officer in Patrick Ehmann‘s org comm, announced that there will be a team cap of 400 with spots for 300 judges. Reg fees for WUDC Berlin 2013 from 27 December 2012 to 4 January 2013 are 400 Euros per capita.

Registration comprises five phases:

• Phase 0: Please read the elligibility rules.
• Phase 1: Be quick and register on the WUDC Berlin 2013 blog, principle: first come, first served. For more transparency about the allocation of slots, please see a sketch on that very same page.
• Phase 2: Please make a 50 percent down payment until May 22. No payment received, you will be deleted from the list, a waiting list team will be allocated your spot. Please note that no fees paid during that period will be refunded.
• Phase 3: Please wire the full payment until September 4. Same principle as above: No payment received, you will be deleted from the list, a waiting list team will be allocated your spot.
• Phase 4: Please give detailed infos about insitutions, speakers and judges until Ocotber 21.

Another useful hint by Dessislava: “Both our blog and our registration form are hosted by Google. Please make sure you are able to access our blog. If you cannot, or if you know that you have trouble accessing Google forms, please contact Participant Affairs Officer Dessislava Kirova as soon as possible.” Nota bene: Find more information on everything concerning Berlin Worlds on the homepage, but register through the blog.

The Berlin Debating Union bid for hosting the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC or Worlds) was confirmed in Botswana 2011 and reconfirmed in Manila 2012. The hosts expect about 1.400 Debattierer from around 70 countries to be there at the event from December 27 2012 until January 4 2013 when about 400 teams will be competing for the title of world champion in the German capital.

Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Stylebecame the mandatory format for this annual tournament. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, the international debating community assembled in Manila for the second time: 1999′s host was Ateneo University in the Philippinian capital – the first time for WUDC to come to Asia at all. Language of debate is English and there are three categories: “Open” for native level speakers, “ESL” (English as a Second Language) and “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language). The Monash Association of Debaters from Australia (Amit Golder und Kiran Iyer) won WUDC for the second time in a row,the other titles (ESL) went to Sella Nevo und Omer Nevo from Tel Aviv (Israel) and to the girls from Ewah Womens’ University, Seoul, Korea (EFL).