One of the biggest IVs on the UK debating circuit is back:  The Manchester Debating Union invites you to Manchester on the 22nd and 23rd of February 2014.  There will be four rounds of seven minute speeches, an open break to quarters, an ESL break to semis and a novice break to finals.  Registration is now open. CA team:  Michael Barton - Top breaking team and 2nd on speaker tab at Manchester EUDC 2013, Winner and Top Speaker at UCD IV 2013 and Multiple IV finalist Emilia Carlqvist, ESL Champion of Manchester Euros 2013, Winner of the Jacobs Open 2013 Imogen Parkes - Worlds & Euros Quarter Finalist, ...

As we already reportet, Thessaloniki bids for WUDC 2013. With the lauch of their Website some more information are now available. Tournament Team Cap: 420 teams, Cap of 3 teams per institution Registration Fee: Maximum €400, to be reduced according to sponsorship Adjudication: Chief Adjudicator:Manos Moschopoulos Deputy Chief Adjudicators: Chris Bisset, Tasneem Elias  Policy Highlights 3 DCAs to be chosen after an application process in 2014 We are committed to ensuring that the adjudication core represents the diversity of regions, language statuses and genders that attend WUDC. We also recognise that appointing the best candidate may require a second person from a particular region €50000 in our worst-case scenario budget ...

When on Saturday a teaser video poped up in Facebook, promising that a "debate related event will take place in 2016" accompany by Syrtaki music, rumours araised that Greece will bid for World Universities Debating Championship 2016. The Debating Society of Greece and the Open Communication Debating Network then proudly presented the University of Macedonia bid for WUDC 2016 at the Cambridge IV. The Championship are to be held 27 December 2015 - 4 January 2016 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The host city of Thessaloniki has been a metropolis of international standing since the Roman times, being an important trade ...

Unless you were exiled to some sort of cave of Debateland, if you’re an European novice debater you probably heard about the Vienna Freshers’ that happened last week. True to the motto “Take off to your debating life” 32 teams from 9 countries were introduced to the debate tournament atmosphere, departing from Vienna, to… well, anywhere you want, or so I’ve heard. I’m looking forward to finding out how far the debating life can take someone. Friday afternoon we gathered at the WU campus, mentally thanking the one who came up with the great idea of getting free energy drinks for ...

Shafiq Bazari and Jonathan Leader Maynard (Chief Adjudicators, Malaysia Worlds 2015) are pleased to announce that fourteen people have applied to be considered for the position of Deputy Chief Adjudicator at Malaysia Worlds 2015. Among the candidates is our very own Dessislava Kirova from Berlin (ESL-Finalist at Manila Worlds, DCA at Manchester Euros and senior member of the OrgComm of Berlin Worlds). The Americas: Sarah Balakrishnan, Brett Frazer, Paul Gross, Buzz Klinger, Romeo Maione, Arlán A. Narváez-Vaz R. Middle East/Africa: Engin Arikan, Ngcwele Khumalo , Paidamwoyo Mangondo Australasis: Paul Karp, Madeline Jennifer Schultz, Sebastian Templeton Continental Europe: Dessislava Kirova, Danique van Koppenhagen The Chief Adjudicators are now asking the world debating community to submit feedback, regarding the suitability ...

In 2014 the World University Debating Championship will take place in Chennai. This week, the adjudication team, consisting in Harish Natajaran, Michael Baer, Ely Zosa, Michael Shapira, Fiona Prowse and Steven Whittington, published a Preliminary Briefing for the participants. You can find the original text here: As many individuals and institutions begin preparing for WUDC over the coming months, the Chennai Worlds Adjudication Team thought it would be helpful to provide some guidance on policies that we will be adopting. The vast majority of this year’s briefings (including much of what follows) will match last year’s briefings in Berlin. We want to ...

The 15th SSE Riga Inter-Varsity Debate Tournament is one of the biggest and oldest debate tournaments in Eastern Europe. It will take place in November 30 – December 1. This far already teams from 9 different countries have confirmed their participation. Deadline for registration & payments is due 12th of November; see details below. Chief Adjudicator of this tournament will be Stephanie Bell, who is a distinguished debater and adjudicator; you may recognize her as the CA of Oxford IV of 2013. Her achievements include: Grand-finalist at the WUDC 2012 and 2nd best speaker, quarter-finalist at WUDC 2011. Location: Stockholm School ...

Warsaw Open is the first international tournament in Poland. The team promises "Amazing people, lots of fun, delicious food and many many attractions!" Some general tournament details: - Chief Adjudicator: Manos Moschopoulos - 7 min speeches - 4 preliminary rounds, break to semi-finals - team cap of 40 - costs are 25 euros per debater, judges 15 euros (covers food, accomodation and alcohol) - n-1 rule applies To registration go to the Google form.  You can contact the team at klubdebat@gmail.com, find more information on their Facebook site and watch the promo video on Youtube. ak

The International Debate Academy Slovenia (IDAS) will be held from November 23rd to December 1st. You can attend the instructional week and the British Parliamentary debate tournament. The weeks consists of a full program for trainers, teachers, coaches, club leaders, judges at any level in any debate format. If not interested in the whole programme, you may apply for the tournament only. The application deadline is the 30th of October. The whole event costs 340 euros, the tournament-only option 80 euros. Facilities As displayed by the picture above, participants will be accommodated in Hotel Špik, in the impressive ambient of Kranjska Gora. Results IDAS is mainly ...

Shafiq Bazari and Jonathan Leader Maynard (Chief Adjudicators, Malaysia Worlds 2015)  are pleased to inform the World Debating Community that applications for the positions of Deputy Chief Adjudicator (DCA) at Malaysia Worlds 2015 is now open. The submission Deadline is 31st October 2013. They hope to select the DCAs from a large pool of applications, and therefore strongly encourage applications from all who believe they would be able to fill the role of a Worlds DCA with excellence. In general, candidates should: Be able to commit to being at the tournament, and to travel to Malaysia shortly before its formal start date. Have excellent ...

On October 11 and 12 the Roosevelt Debating Society hosted the second edition of the Roosevelt Open. The tournament was held in lovely Middelburg, all the way in the south-west corner of the Netherlands. Among the VDCH-speaker were Stefan Torges, Madlen Stottmeyer, Leonard Muenstermann, Moritz Justen, Kai Dittmann, Jan-Dirk Capelle and Christopher Kroesmann. The tournament was won by Anne Valkering and Rogier Baart. Unfortuantly no VDCH-teams were in the break rounds, but the individual results of the teams and speaker can be found in the individual Speaker Tab and Team Tab. Motions R1: This House would no longer arrest or prosecute ...

Last weekend, the first EBS Open organized by Bhavesh Agarval took place in Wiesbaden. There were only 16 teams due to the fact that a lot of teams canceled only a few days before the tournament. However, all participants were happy with the small EBS Open! Chief Adjudicators were Marietta Gädeke and Michael Shapira. Motions: R1: THW make EU voting compulsory. R2: You are a 19 year old boy who just finished his Abitur. As this boy, THW join the Bundeswehr (an infoslide was provided). R3: THW ban private Universities. R4: THW grant all Ethnic Germans a full Right of Return (an infoslide was provided as ...

The registration for Moscow Open 2013 is now open!  The Org Com says that the will provide food, crash and alcohol (“pretty decent socials sponsored by our business consulting friends") . Additionally they will help with the visa: “So just put on a big fur coat, google Navalny and practice your vodka drinking. Russia can't wait to have you!” Details: 5 rounds, break to semifinals There is no registration fee for international teams & judges. Please note that n-1 rule applies to Moscow teams. Deadline for registration is November 11. CA - Sally Rooney (EUDC 2013 Top Speaker, EUDC 2013 Finalist, EUDC 2012 Semi-finalist, winner of the International Mace and ...

The World Universities Debating Championship 2014 will take place in Chennai, India. The tournament starts on december 26th and lasts until january 3rd. It will be hosted by Rajalakshmi Institutions, a the group of educational institutes founded in 1997. This group of institutes provide higher education and school level educations to students in and around India. It is one of the top and largest educational institutions in India. Each year the event is hosted by a different university, selected by the World Universities Debating Council at the World Championship taking place. This follows a bidding process conducted at the World Championships ...

Between September 8 and 11 2013 BGU carried out the Red Sea Open for the fourth time. Convened by Mor Zoran and Noa Golan hyper-funded by the Ben Gurion University the rounds took place on the Eilat Campus of BGU. 32 teams, an outstanding Chief Adjudication team and an all round board combined an intimate debate atmosphere with a party holiday mood.  And the debate community has a new contender that wants to host EUDC 2016. Eilat, a rather Unconventional Debate Scenery From around a dozen tournaments yearly generated on the Israeli circuit the Red Sea Open is the only one truly ...

This years SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) IV will be held from october 19th to october 20th. The organiser promise a "veritable "fun fest" of five competitive rounds, of 7 minute speeches, breaking to quarters and esl quarters, with excellent feedback guaranteed and two fantastic socials. We are expecting more than 100 teams." Adjudication team: CA: Amanda Moorghen (Euros Final judge, WUDC Quarter Finalist) DCA Elise Trewick (Euros Semi-Finalist) DCA: Andrea Bos (Euros Quarter Finalist) The event takes place at SOAS Vernon Square and Russell Square Campus, with the final held in the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre. Registration is now open. Please follow the ...

The OrgComm of Zagreb EUDC 2014 has announced that they opened the DCA application process to the feedback stage. They would like to invite all members of the international debating community to provide feedback on the applicants based on their personal experience of working with them either as debaters, judges, CAs or DCAs. They are interested in feedback regarding judging ability and motion setting. In addition, they welcome any feedback on how well applicants work in teams and their other personal attributes. In alphabetical order, the applicants are: Alon van Dam (Israel, RRIS) Andreas Lazar (Germany, University of Stuttgart) Ashish Kumar (IONA, Cambridge University) Ben ...

On August 23 EUDC Council assembled in Manchester. Amongst other things the decisions on who will host Euros in 2014 and 2015 were made, with bids by Durham and Zagreb for EUDC 2014 and a bid by Vienna for EUDC 2015. Zagreb took the win over Durham and will host Euros next year. Vienna’s bid was confirmed, which makes them the hosts for Euros the year after next. Teresa Widlok was present in Council in her capacity as International Officer of the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies and German delegate to Council. The following article describes her impressions ...

On October 11 and 12 the Roosevelt Debating Society will host the second edition of the Roosevelt Open. The tournament will be held in lovely Middelburg, all the way in the south-west corner of the Netherlands. Last year's Open was a great success, and this year the Org Comm promise a well-organized and fun tournament. Through collaboration with the Nationale Jeugdraad (NJR), they strive to make this tournament environmentally friendly. Concise info: British Parliamentary 7-minute speeches 5 rounds & break to semis Max €25 per speaker Domestic team cap of 5 Total team cap of 40 N-1 Adjudication Rule Registration Chief Adjudicators: Daan Welling: EUDC 2012 ESL Champion, WUDC 2013 ...

The University of Birmingham Debating Society is delighted to invite you all to the Birmingham IV 2013! It will take place from December 20th untill 22th. Both convenors (Jamie Batchelor and David Irvine) have just finished an Erasmus year in Berlin. Jamies says: " Having seen what you guys can do we are aiming to extend participation in the Birmingham IV to institutions throughout continental Europe. We have a fantastic CA team lined up, and we’ll be running 5 rounds of 7 minute speeches, breaking to Open semi-finals as well as an ESL final. The weekend before Christmas, it promises ...

The Europen Universities Debating Championship 2014 will take place from 18th - 24th August 2014 in the capital of Croatia Zagreb. The championsships will be organised by joint efforts of the Zagreb Deebating Union, Open Communication and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Nika Jelaska, Prospective Convener of Zagreb EUDC 2014, said: "Zagreb’s EUDC bid was motivated by a desire to bring debating back to the Balkans. Debating is an important and integral activity - its plays a role in how we engage, communicate and persuade. While in some societies debating is recognized and valued as an activity that should be ...

Nika Jelaska, Convenor of Zagreb EUDC 2014 has announced that the Deputy Chief Adjudicator process has just started. The application form can be downloaded from the webpage. Selection Criteria: Zagreb EUDC plans to appoint five Deputy Chief Adjudicators. The Org Comm says, that they have a strong preference for a geographically diverse adjudication team, with DCA’s that come from all over the continent. The team will ideally have members from developed and developing circuits, as well as a mix of those with extensive adjudication experience and those with less experience on adjudication teams. They are looking for candidates that have experience, perspectives and ...

The 4th UCU Open will be held in Utrecht, Netherlands on the 29th and 30th of November 2013. The registration for the BPS tournament will open on the 1st of September, the fee is 30€ per participant, judges are free (N-1 rule applies). There will be 5 preliminary rounds with a break to semi finals. Sam Block will serve as CA (DCAs: TBA) For more information visit the Facebook group or the homepage Franziska Städter/ak

Last weekend a dream that many debaters dream came true for Peer Klüßendorf and Emilia Carlqvist: They became European Debating Champions in English as a second language. Peer started debating in highschool when he attended "Jugend debattiert" and advanced to its national and international final in 2007. One year ago, he resumed debating when he moved to Lund. Emilia just moved to Lund in 2011 and tried debating at a local tournament. Despite liking it, she was too busy and did not debate again until 2012 when she decided to run for the board of Lund Debate Society. Achte Minute ...

On thursday and friday the outrounds and the final of the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) took place in Manchester. Via Twitter and Facebook the results were announced already on Friday evening. Here is an overview of the motions and finalists. English as a Foreign Language: ESL Quarter-Finals: THBT men should consistently 'call out' and correct chauvinistic claims made by friends and coworkers ESL Semi-Finals: THBT environmentalists should start a campaign of sabotage and property damage aimed at major polluting companies ESL Final: THB the state should not fund works of art/ performance that average citizens would not recognize as having artistic merit OG: Berlin ...

The Break of the EUDC Manchester 2013 has just been announced. It has been quite a wait. https://twitter.com/TheHist/status/370309338704785408 Open Break 1. TCD Hist A 2. Cambridge A 3. Sheffield A 4. Bristol A 5. GUU A 6. Cambridge B 7. TCD Phil A 8. Edinburgh A 9. UCC Phil A 10. Oxford A 11. St Andrews A 12. Nottingham A 13. Warwick A 14. Durham B 15. KCL A 16. Birmingham A ESL-Break 1. Tel Aviv 2. BDU A (Niels Schröter and Hauke Blume) 3. Belgrade A 4. Groningen B 5. Roosevelt A 6. Lund A 7. IDC A 8. Vienna A (Stefan Zweiker and Christoph Jäger) 9. Munich A (Marco Witzmann and Wladi Jachtchenko) 10. BBU A 11. RRIS A 12. Belgrade B 13. Stuttgart A (Nils Haneklaus and Andreas Lazar) 14. ...

[caption id="attachment_17792" align="alignleft" width="256"] The University Place - the main debating venue[/caption] Since sunday 214 teams from Europe , 19 of which are from VDCH- Clubs, are competing in the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC). The Manchester Debating Unions is hosting the biggest event in the european debating circuit this year at the University of Manchester. Here are some insights into the tournament, the debates and how the German teams did. The locations The teams live in cosy small apartments with single and double bed rooms around the campus. The distance to the debate rooms is very short - it takes teams 5-10minutes. ...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="324"] Front page of the report[/caption] During the Glasgow Ancients Final the Team of Opening Government, defending the motion "This House Regrets the Centralization of Religion", was booed and "shame"-d by male debaters in the audience, adding to the list of problematic remarks on women in the Glasgow Debating Union observed during the weekend. Achte Minute documented parts of the debate in an article. Now one of the victims of this incident, Rebecca Meredith published together with Matt Hezell and Clara Spera a report, that shows the spread of misogyny and sexisim within debating. The report collects contributions from a survey started after the final of the Glasgow Ancients 2013 in ...

Achte Minute features today a online post by Daan Welling that can also be found on his blog. He says, that as he is now part of the “old crowd” on the Dutch debating scene, he thinks it ought to be time for him to sit down on the sofa of self-appointed wisdom, and give some general suggestions, ideas and inspirations for the coming debating season. We are excited to see what you think about his ideas. I think our circuit is incredibly fun and inclusive, and serves as a great addition to one’s (student) life. Nonetheless, there are always ...

The CA team at EUDC Manchester has introduced changes to the way POIs are treated; in particular, they have introduced a compulsory POI requirement, and have asked judges to more stringently enforce the allowance for 15 seconds of speaking time during a POI. Michael Shapira wrote a constructive criticism about those new rules. Now Shengwu Li, writing on behalf of the CA team, explains the thought process behind these rulings. He says that they were happy and thankful for the lively debate on this important issue, but he feels, that there need to be some clarifications as to theire reasons ...