135 years after USU began as a debating institution, its debating team has again been ranked number one in the world following the recent 29th World Universities Debating Championships in Cork, Ireland.
The USU’s debating team is now the most successful and highest ranked debating institution in the world, ahead of prestigious institutions Oxford (ranked second) Cambridge (ranked third) and the entire Ivy League.
The USU’s current debating team boasts the Best Speaker Naomi Oreb, Second Best Speaker Steve Hinde and equal 4th Best Speakers Julia Featherstone and Contingent Team Captain Tim Mooney.
‘USU is very proud of our long and successful debating tradition at the University of Sydney. With USU’s support our debating team members can take advantage of the best University student experience and co-curricular activities in Australia,’ says USU President, Ruchir Punjabi.
‘Our debaters experience not just a sense of achievement through these outstanding results, but also benefit from being part of a community of fun, intelligent, passionate and interesting people. It’s these qualities that enrich their experience at the University of Sydney,’ says Mr Punjabi.
The 2009 tournament will be hosted by Koc University in Turkey, and will be held in Botswana in 2010. Two USU members have been appointed to prominent positions, Sam Greenland as Equity Officer for Koc and Bronwyn Cowell as the 2009/10 Worlds Women's Officer.
The World Universities Debating Championships is a parliamentary debating event, held using a variant of the British Parliamentary Debate format.
The Championships are held annually in a University selected by the World Council and sees 1000 delegates from more than 40 countries compete over 8 days to be crowned World Champions. The event is the largest academic competition in the world and one of the largest annual international student events in the world.
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