Natasha Ovchar, convenor of the tournament, has announced today that the Jacobs Open 2011 will take place from 29 April to 1 May. Originally the tournament organized by Jacobs University Bremen Debating Society (JUB Debating Society) was scheduled at the end of January, but had to be postponed due to several obstacles from different sides. ...

First BP tourny in Sweden ever: From 15 to 17 April, the Lund Debate Society ((LDS) will host the first Lund Open. Five prelims with seven-minute speeches lead to semis and final. The latter will be staged in a majestic venue, the convenors promise on the Lund Open 2011 homepage. The adjudication team has not been announced yet. But the Lund debaters allure to their fellow debaters with an all-inclusive offer: An optional debate workshop, a guided city tour, and meals are scheduled for that spring weekend as well as a lot of Swedish alcohol, Swedish singing and clubbing after ...

Ever heard of the Issyk Kul? No? Then you haven’t heard of the Russian Language Debate Championship that is going to be staged by this saline lake in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan from 17 to 20 September 2011. The competition will be organized by the International Debate Education Association (IDEA). Language of the tournament is – guess! – Russian, format will be the British Parliamentary Style (BPS) though. The Russian Language Debate Championship is open to Russian speaking teams from all over the world. Workshops for debaters as well as for judges  and socials will be on the schedule of ...

We're sorry, this piece is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about what deb socs from Stuttgart and Vienna have to say on Botswana Worlds 2011 and what Berliner Zeitung reports on the Berlin Debating Union, the future host of Worlds 2013. ...

For the third time, Moscow will be stage to the HSE Open. On 9 and 10 April 2011 forty teams are expected to flock into the Russian capital. Language of the tournament is English, debates will be held in British Parliamentary Style (BPS), speakers have six minutes for their speeches. Venue to the HSE Open is the Higher School of Economics. Chief adjudicator is going to be Anne Valkering, convenor of Amsterdam Euros 2010 and Worlds 2008 winner (ESL). Her deputies are Eugene Akulich (WUDC ESL finalist 2005) and Robert Ustyan (EUDC semi finalist). The convenors invite debaters from all over ...

Originality, quality and banter – that is what the convenors of the Heriot Watt Open 2011 promise on the tournament’s Facebook website. The Debating Society of the Heriot Watt University of Edinburgh is going to host the Open on 26 March. They also announced that one may expect “motions from a CA team that doesn't include the same old names you see time after time.” Chief adjudicator is Jordan Anderson who won the Warwick IV 2009, Lancaster IV 2009 and the Sheffield IV in the following year. His deputies are Duncan Crowe and Matteo De Martino. Duncan was a finalist ...

British Parliamentary Style inthe French capital: From 1 to 3 April 2011 this year's Paris IV will be staged by the river Seine. Chief adjudicators (CA) are Jens Fischer, Maja Cimerman and Ben Woolgar.All three of them are renown debaters on the international debating circuit: Jens is currently chair of the WUDC and the EUDC Councils, from the latter of which he will resign soon. Maja was an ESL finalist at Worlds 2011 and ESL finalist at Amsterdam Euros. Ben was a finalist at the grand final in Botswana, a finalist of Amsterdam Euros and is the designated CA of ...

Tartu in the South of Estonia and the oldest university in the country is calling debaters to the Estonian Open 2011. From 15 to 17 April the tournament will be held in English, the format is BPS. Chief adjudicator is Maria Kesa (Estonia) flanked by Martins Vaivars (Latvia) and Harish Natarajan (England). “Maria is two times Baltic Champion, World's ESL Semi-finalist (2009 Cork World's) and a finalist at several other IV's,” as is reported on the website of the Estonian Open 2011. Martins was third best ESL speaker at Newcastle Euros, won the Cambridge IV 2008 (ESL) and topped the ...

Debating by the Channel: Save the date for the Sciences Po IV 2011 from 7 to 9 May. The English Debating Society (EDS) is going to host the ESL-only tournament in France's Normandy. The format is British Parliamentary Style (BPS), the language of the tournament is English. In 2009, the Sciences Po IV was held for the first time as the first tournament that is for ELS debaters only, as is reported on the competition’s (not yet updatedf) website. ESL stands for “English as a Second Language“ which is a category at international debating tournaments for non-native speakers of English. While ...

Again it’s Tuesday night. Time for a bit of debating at Dresden Debating Union (DDU). Today the "Crosstalk" is scheduled, like one could read in the announcement of the weekly newsletter. "Crosstalk" means that only two speakers compete against each other. Each one of them may speak three and a half minutes for two times. At the end of the evening there is a winner, who could defend himself successfully in all the preliminary rounds. Like every week, the motions are important for lively debates. In opposite to the usual debates, this time the motions were drawn. Afterwards the speakers had ...

We're sorry, this article is not available. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the success of the first "Tübinger Forum".

A new debating union has been founded: last thursday, four students founded the "DUEbattierclub" in Duisburg: Paul Wypych, Philip Scharf, Markus Krümpel and Jörn Hahn, former vice-president of the debating union in Dortmund. During the first debates of this new union all four had strong support: vice-president of the VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy), Esther Reinert, Lukas Haffert, debater in Cologne and Oliver Knüpfler, president of the debatig union in Münster.

Sorry, this article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn about the Second Bayreuth Varsity that was held in January.

We are sorry, this article is not available in English. Please read the German version and get to know how debaters from five German cities enjoyed the small tournament in Wartburg style in Jena.

The masters' debate of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) gets into its second round: on 10 February the societies' best speakers compete another time with each other in a public debate. This time, the motion reads "Who is the owner of Nofretete?" Like the last time, when the debate is closed and the speakers have left the room, the audience is allowed to follow the process of adjudication. The masters' debate takes place at 7 pm on 10 February, the venue is "Orbis Humboldtianus" situated above the Audimax at the main building of Humboldt University Berlin. vro / glx

Old stagers from Tübingen wrote about how to use rhetoric during academic studies. Daniel Grotzky, himself a veteran on the German debating circuit, penned a review on the book by Tim-C. Bartsch und Bernd Rex. Interested in the book? Read the German version of the article to get a review. glx / apf

Are you in for judging in China? Then let’s got to Beijing for the FLTRP Cup from 7 to 14 May this year! FLTRP stands for Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press, the host of the National English Debating Championship in the People’s Republic to be held for the 15th time. The tournament is open to Chinese students only, but since the British Parliamentary Style has not been introduced before 2010, the convenors want to guarantee a certain standard of parliamentary debate by inviting international judges. Those interested may register on the website of the FLTRP Cup. In 2010, the FLTRP ...

Who is top of the club? The Dresden Debating Union (DDU) wants to figure that out and therefore hosts on Tuesday, 25 January, an internal tournament called "Crosstalk". ...

Jonathan Scholbach, Severin Weingarten and Eva Schlindwein (Debattiergesellschaft Jena) have just won this year’s Jena Open defying the Pro side. The motion reads "Open Goverment statt Geheimdiplomatie? – Sollen staatliche Informationen frei verfügbar sein?". ...

Apply for the all stars tournament! The International Debate Association (IDEA) und die Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) invite debaters from all over the world to the University of Vermont where a tournament of the masters is to be held on 8 and 9 April 2011. Occasion is the IDEA/HWS Round Robin, invitees are the 16 top teams of the world who have won one or more of the competitions listed below. Language of the tournament is of course English, format is the British Parliametary Style. Teams will be paired in round robin, i.e. every team is going to ...

The Berlin Humboldt Intervarsity 2010, formerly known as Berlin Open, was awarded an exemplary project for transnational youth initiatives in Europe by the EU programme “youth in action”. The former executive of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, had encouraged the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) to apply for support of their competition. The tournament held by the BDU was subsidized by the commission of the European Union through “youth in action” among others such as film and theater projects. The website says the following about the Berlin Open: "'Berlin Open 2010: The European debate tournament‘ is the biggest and ...

The guys of Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) never stand still: they are already very busy with the preparation of the ZEIT DEBATTE in May, but that doesn’t seem to be enough. That’s why the board of DGJ invited selected debaters to the friendship tournament in the “City of Light” situated at the river Saale. Speakers and adjudicators from Ilmenau, Leipzig, Dresden and Potsdam will come to Jena for the weekend to practise the Wartburg style in four preliminaries and the final. Also members of DGJ take part in the tournament and offer places to sleep to the participants from other cities. Today ...

Prepare for Euros on the spot! From 11 to 13 February 2011 the National University of Ireland in Galway (NUIG) is open to debaters from all over Europe for the Galway Open. In Summer this year, the same locale will be stage to the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros). To arrange the open tournament in February, two deb socs work together: The Law Society and the Literary and Debating Society. The convenors Evelyn Whyms and Tara Gibbons expect about 80 teams in Febaruary. As chief adjudicators (CA), they engaged Ruth Faller, also CA at Euros in summer, and ...

This article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version to learn more about wine tasting, masquerade and ... uhm ... yes, debating and motions at ZEIT DEBATTE 2011 in Mainz. It was a great tournament with amazing socials. ...

Countdown: 341 days to go until De La Salle University (DLSU) Worlds 2012 kick-off in manila, Philippines.It was not until recently that VDCH debaters have returned from Gaborone, Botswana where they were taking part in this year’s World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). Still, if you are already desperately longing for next Worlds you may browse the websites of DLSU Worlds. There, the second issue of the Worlds Debate Magazine is available where the bids for WUDC 2013 are presented. Of course, our well informed and loyal readers know already that Berlin is going to host Worlds 2013. You want ...

Please read the German version of this article to find out who broke to semi-finals at ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz!

The World Universities Debate Championships (WUDC or Worlds)have been held for the 31st time in a row. The first Worlds were staged in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1981. Back then, 43 teams from seven countriescompeted for the title, the registration fee was ten British Pound. The first WUDC winners back in 1981 were Steve Coughlan and Andrew Taylor from University of Toronto, Canada. Many English schools did not take part – they found Glasgow was too far away as is reported. Nota bene: The distance between London and Glasgow is 405 miles, or 650 kilometers. By the way, it was not ...

On his blog, Manos Moschopoulos compiled unofficial tabs for ESL and EFL respectively for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). He did so based on data provided by Leela Koenig, judge at Botswana Worlds, and the competition's language committee. So far, official ESL and EFL tabs have not yet been published by the adjudication team of CA Logandran Balavijendran. According to Manos’ compilation, a correction of the Top Five EFL Speakers has to be noted: “Simon Belak (Ljubljana C) and Andreas Lazar (Stuttgart A) are joint top EFL speakers (initially, they were announced as 2nd and 1st respectively),” Manos ...

Shout-outs from across the planet for the world debating champions: Media in Australia, Israel and Russia are applauding the teams from Monash and Haifa who won the grand final and ESL-final respectively in Botswana where the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) where staged over New Year’s Eve. But there is also rumour that miscalculations in the tab led to teams not breaking mistakenly. At abc.net, people are proud that Fiona Prowse and Victor Finkel from team Monash A took home the title of world debating champions. On top of that, other Aussie teams had eminent results too: “Australian students ...

We’re sorry, this article is not or not yet available in English. Please read the German version.