World's top students converge in Manila for 'Olympics of Debate'

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines welcomes participants from all over the world as De La Salle University and San Miguel Corp. host what is considered to be the “Olympics of Debating”, the 32nd World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds).

Over 1,000 participants from 41 nations converge in Manila to battle it out to be called the world’s best debaters in this nine-day competition that has started Dec. 27 until Jan, 4, 2012. The best and the brightest university students from 224 universities – including the University of Sydney, Monash, Cambridge, Oxford, and Harvard – will have nine elimination rounds to determine, from the 400 registered teams, the top 32 teams which will advance to the penultimate rounds in the British Parliamentary format. There are separate categories for Public Speaking as a Second Language (ESL), and English as a Foreign Language (for countries whose nationals do not usually use English as a medium of conversation).

Top judges and debaters in the world, to be headed by DLSU alumna Lucinda Teresa David and Cambridge alumnus debater Sam Block, will be flown in just for the tournament. The organizing team waived the registration fees of the 66 top judges and some of them will also receive airfare subsidies to ensure the high quality of the tournament.

The tournament is not just about debating, as participants will be treated to nine nights of various social events.

For more information, visit the tournament website at www.dlsuworlds.com