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. 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 teams in total. ...

From July 11th to July 13th the BBU Open will take place in Cluj-Napoca 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 the ...

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 in ...

The Debattierklub Wien (DKWien), host of the European Universities Debating Championships 2015, has looked back on their experiences with the Vienna IV 2014. Chief Organizer Stefan Zweiker published an article titled "Lessons Learnt: A Résumé on Vienna IV 2014" reflecting the experiences with the tournament and what the DKWien learned for Vienna EUDC 2015. Achte Minute publishes Stefan's text. The full article including all of the photos is available on the website of the 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 ever took place ...

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 ...

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) The CAs of the Vienna IV Stefan Zweiker, Christine Simpson and Nicole Loiter with the winners Marija Simić ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

From the 11th to the 13th of April the Estonian Open 2014, one of the largest tournaments in the region, will take place in the beautiful city of Tallinn. The Estonian capital has also been the battleground of the European Universities Debating Championships 2008. The tournament, hosted by Rasmus Raag and Selene Gnadenteich, will have 5 preliminary rounds with 5 minute speeches, open semis and final with 7 minute speeches each. For all novice debaters, that is to say for those who have not been debating British Parliamentary Style for over a year, there is a special novice final. (c) Ralf Roletschek via ...

On the 5th of April, the Debating Society Magdeburg launches their first English speaking novice tournament. For the organisers of the tournament, Felicia Höer and Stefan Torges, this is a large step to establish and facilitate English debating in Germany. "Here in Germany, beginners in English debating have a hard time to get a foot in the door. Most tournaments are far away and quite expensive", Stefan says. Hence, they decided to make a tournament on their own: "We have a lot of English speaking novices in our society and so we thought we could do them a favour and ...

British Parliamentary Style in the German capital: From 11th to 13th April 2011 this year’s Berlin IV will be held. Chief adjudicators (CA) are Sally Rooney (EUDC 2013 Top-Speaker and Finalist, CA Moscow Open and UKDC 2013), Tomas Beerthuis (Deputy Chief Adjudicator of Zagreb EUDC) and Kai Dittmann (WUDC 2014 ESL-Champion). Registration will open on Febuary 1st, 6:00 pm. Reg fee will be 35 € per person. As Convener Alexander Hans states, the teamcap of 40 can be expanded if demand is high. Institution cap is 3 teams. The contact information if you have any questions is alexander.hans.mail@gmail.com.  As a special, Alex ...

On the website of DKWien, host of the European Universities Debating Championships 2015, convenor Stefan Zweiker has published a contemplation of the past year. In his article "2013 Retrospect – The Starting Position for 2014", he points out what DKWien has done in the past few months to organise a successful tournament. Already in the beginning he underlines that the text was written before Chennai Worlds 2014 and therefore cannot be seen as a reaction to the problems that occured there. Achte Minute publishes extracts from Stefan's article. The entire text can be read on the website of Vienna EUDC  2015. "What ...

The Org Com of Zagreb EUDC 2014 has announced the date for the registration and the registration policy. On their website they say: "Dear European Debating Community,Registration for all institutions that wish to participate in Zagreb EUDC 2014 will open on Sunday, March the 2nd, at 12:00 CET (Central European time). That is 11:00 London/Dublin/Lisbon, 12:00Belgrade/Paris/Amsterdam/Berlin, 13:00 Athens/Ankara/Tallinn and 14:00Moscow/Doha time. Registration policy Registration will stay opened for 24 hours. Every institution will be able to register a maximum of 3 teams. We will be following the registration policy set up by Manchester EUDC and similar to one used at WUDC. All registered ...

On the 2nd of January 2014 several out-rounds of different language categories took place. Three German teams are still in the competition. Here are the result and the motions:   Open Double Octo Finals Motion: This House would abolish gated communities in the developing world. Break into Open Octo-Finals: Otago B (John Brinsley-Pirie, Patrick Dawson) Monash B (Nisha Dutta, Beatrice Paull) IIUM A (Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Mubarrat Wassey) Stanford A (Ilya Gaidarov, Andrew Suciu) Western University A (Victoria Hale, Brent Schmidt) Yale B (Zach Bakal, Sesenu Woldemariam) UCTA A, (David Harris, James Wink) Monash C (Andrew Gaulke, Thomas Stansfield) Sydney C (Evangeline Woodforde, Daniel Farinha) Cambridge C (Frederick Powell, Michael Dunn Goekjian) Glasgow ...

The break of the World Universities Debating Championship has been announced. The following teams will compete in the out-rounds on the 2nd of January: Open Break Teams / Points, direct break to Open Octo-Finals 1 University of Sydney Union B / 26 (Eleanor Jones, Chris Bisset) 2 Cambridge Union Society A / 22 (Thomas Simpson, Ashish Kumar) 3 Monash University A / 21 (James Beavis, Gemma Buckley) 4 Harvard University A / 21 (Josh Zoffer, Ben Sprung-Keyser) 5 McGill University A / 21 (Cole Bricker, Sarah Balakrishnan) 6 University of Canterbury A / 21 (Tom O'Brien, Tim Bain) 7 University of Cape Town B / 21 (Yashodhan Nair, Daniel Corder) 8 ...

From the 26th of December 2013 until the 4th of January 2014, the biggest and most important international tournament of the year, the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), takes place in Chennai, India. After participants of all over the world arrived in the Indian megacity on the 26th and 27th of December, the tournament officially began on the 28th with the Grand Opening. On the 29th, the first three preliminary rounds took place – time to present a first summary and portray some impressions. Accomodation Most of the participants are accommodated in 2- to 3-bed rooms in the five-star hotels of the ...

This letter has been written by Dessislava Kirova, Deputy Chief Adjudicator for the South Africa bid, WUDC ESL finalist and DCA of Manchester Euros. Dear Debaters of Germany, Thank you very much for the opportunity to directly address you on behalf of the South Africa WUDC 2016 Bid. We have published our extensive and detailed Bid Document for all to read and check after the aspects that are most important for them . In this brief article we would like to take the opportunity and talk about the aspects of inclusiveness and development that are at the heart of both the OrgComm and ...

On January 1st, the members of the Worlds Universities Debating Council will make many decisions – but the most important one is certainly determining the host of the worlds debating championship 2016. Two cities are bidding to host the most prestigious debating tournament in the world: Thessaloniki and Johannesburg. To make the comparison easier for the delegates, the conveners have agreed to fill out a comparative list where the core facts can be assessed and that the country delegation can form an opinion. For everyone who’s interested: Here is the link to the document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TZQYznLelA-DWSp8aTD9F3IhYaLDj4u1gTt8bLqIeLU/edit?usp=sharing Marcus Ewald/ ak

Are you ready? Because this February Leiden Debating Union is bringing you the biggest Dutch tournament since Amsterdam EUDC 2010. Leiden Debating Union was founded in 2004, so this will be their tenth year anniversary. To celebrate that with you, they bring you an English-spoken BP-tournament with five preliminary rounds, seven-minute speeches and break to semis and novice final. Registration is open. Details: Team cap: 68 teams, institutional team cap is five. Reg fee: €30 euro per speaker, judges free. (judge funding possibilities are available) N-1 will apply only for domestic institutions CA Team: CA: Leela Koenig, honorary life member of LDU, her list of speaking and judging ...

The days are getting shorter and the pleasant anticipation of Christmas is creeping in. It’s the time of the year when families reunite to celebrate and catch up on what has happened during the year. The remote brothers and sisters fly in or take the train to unite around the table, after a busy year. This is very much the context for Cork IV, the last reunion of the Irish debating circuit before the World Championship. As the Rec Sec* rightly pointed out at the final, the Irish debaters are very much like a family indeed. They share the same customs ...