Monash succeeds in prestigious world debate

February 2009

A Monash University team competed against top Ivy League schools last month to reach the Grand Final of the 2009 World University Debating Championships (WUDC) in Cork, Ireland.

Representing Monash, student and alumnus Victor Finkel (BMus 2008) and student Ravi Dutta challenged fellow ‘Worlds’ finalists from Harvard University and the University of Oxford. Mr Finkel and Mr Dutta debated in favour of the topic ‘That this house would ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy’ and became runners-up to the University of Oxford A Team on a 5/4 split decision.

“We were very happy with our performance, most importantly because reaching the Grand Final ensures that debators around the world recognise Monash as a top debating university,” said Mr Finkel.

“There’s also a particular thrill that comes from competing against Ivy League schools – we beat teams from Stanford, Princeton, Oxford and Yale along the way,” he said.

During their journey to the final, Mr Finkel and Mr Dutta debated their way through topics about weapons trading, crimes against democracy and home ownership. Their success means that 2009 is the second year in a row that Monash has reached the WUDC Grand Final.

Mr Dutta said he enjoyed the opportunity to participate at an international level.

“[The WUDC] is something you don’t experience very often because you’re debating against students from around the world. It’s good to be exposed to different style of debating and different thinking,” said Mr Dutta.

The WUDC is the world’s largest debating tournament, and one of the largest annual international student events. It uses the British Parliamentary Debate format, which includes four teams with two speakers in each debate. In 2009, 308 teams from more than 40 countries competed in the tournament.

Monash will host the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships in July this year.