Champions at the Taylor’s Inter College Debating Championships!

Two students, Mahherrajan Narayanan (Maxx) & Qureysh Yunus, from KDU University College’s Debate Association were unanimously named as Champions in the Taylor’s Inter College Debating Championships, with two other teams making it into the quarter finals and semi finals.

 

Left to right: Alloysius, Adrian, Sharanya, Michelle, Qureysh and Maxx

The tournament, which was held on the 6^th and 7^th August and saw about 40 teams taking part, took on the format of British Parliamentary, the same used at the Worlds Universities Debating Championships.

Sharanya & Alloysius

Adrian & Michelle

Maxx & Qureysh

The KDU Debate Association fielded a total of six teams as well as six adjudicators for the tournament. 3 of those teams made it past the preliminary rounds and into the elimination ones. KDU C (Sharanya Visualingam & Alloysious Chin) was eliminated in the quarters after a good and close round. The remainder two teams, KDU A (Mahherrajan Narayanan & Qureysh Yunus) and KDU B (Adrian Cheong & Tee Michelle), were in the same Semifinals room alongside two other universities. The motion was debated well and saw KDU A make it to the Grand Finals of the tournament. Valerie Chin made it as a judge to the Quarterfinals and Don Siron Pereira to the Semifinals of the tournament.

The motion tabled was 'This House Believes That Colonization of Other Planets is a Possible Justification for Space Exploration’. KDU A was in the Opening Government position against teams from the International Islamic University and UiTM Shah Alam. On a unanimous decision, KDU University College was named Champions of the 3rd Taylors Inter College Debate Championships. The win was apparently clear to the judges, according to Timothy Andrew, one of the Deputy Chief Adjudicators of the tournament.

What Maxx and Qureysh have to say:

We are very proud to represent KDUDA and also KDU University College. It was our first win. However, we have to overcome stiff competition like UITM and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa. 

It was an unexpected win but the target was there. We worked very hard and did not give up. We suffered a lot during the 3rd round; however, we managed to pull through the following rounds and come back stronger than ever. 

We definitely have good team chemistry. Last of all, we would like to thank KDUDA and KDU University College for giving us the support that we need.

Debating is a strong and growing culture in KDU and discourse is encouraged amongst students from all programmes. KDU will be sending 3 teams and 2 judges to the Worlds Universities Debating Championships hosted by De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines and this is possible only with the support of KDU University College.

Here's to wishing KDUDA the best of luck and we know that they will definitely make us proud!