Registration for the World Universities Debating Championships 2015 in Malaysia
Update: Registration is open until April 19th, 4 am, German Time. 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. Out of which, 30 team slots will be reserved for teams applying under our WUDC Scholarship Programme. Thus, we will be allocating 410 team slots for Malaysia Worlds 2015.
The registration fee for each debater and adjudicator is set at EUR380 per person and for each observer is set at EUR800 per person. Payment details will be made available on our website in the near future.
Registration Timeline
Phase 1: Pre-Registration (until 14 April)
The following document is the data compilation of:
(a) all of the institutions who have attended any of the prior 3 WUDCs; and
(b) the number of teams those institutions have broken, in any language category, during those 3 years.
This document will determine the position of your institution in the waiting list for team allocations. Thus, we ask for all institutions to review the document and inform our team if there are any mistakes in the data compilation.
You may access the document at this link: http://goo.gl/nDnyRH
Please send the Registration Team an e-mail addressing those errors at registration [at] malaysiaworlds2015 [dot] com. The deadline to inform us if there are any corrections will be on 14 April 2014 (Monday).
Phase 2: Initial Google Doc Registration (16 April – 19 April)
The first phase of registration will be done via Google Docs. This is because its unlimited server capacity is best fitted to handle the concentration of registration attempts made once registration opens.
The Google Doc Registration Form will be made live on 16 April 2014 (Wednesday) at 10am (UTC/GMT +8) and will remain open for 72 hours. Registration will officially close on 19 April 2014 at 10am (UTC/GMT +8).
Initial registration results will be posted as soon as we possibly can but no later than 23 April 2014 (Wednesday). Payment invoices along with payment details will be sent to all institutional representatives on the same day.
Phase 3: FastRego Registration (until 5 May)
All institutions will have been informed of their registration status by the commencement of this phase and will be required to register an account on FastRego by 5 May 2014 (Monday). A registration link will be provided on our website along with the initial registration results.
Teams that fail to complete this phase will be forfeiting their registration slots.
Phase 4: Payment Deposit (until 30 May)
A deposit of 50% of the total registration fees has to be made by 30 May 2014 (Friday). Institutions may also opt to make the full registration fee payment as well. This payment phase is only considered complete upon uploading a proof of transfer unto the institution’s FastRego account. Failure to complete this phase before the stated deadline will result in the forfeiture of the institution’s registration slots.
Any institution allocated a place after 30 May 2014 will have until 20 June 2014 to pay their deposits.
Phase 5: Full Payment (until 25 July)
Full payment will be required by 25 July 2014 (Friday). Any institution that has not paid in full will forfeit any of their unpaid places and may lose their deposits.
Any institution allocated a place after 25 July will have until 22 August 2014 (Friday) to make the full payment.
Phase 6: Participants’ Details (until 31 October)
All participants will have until the 31 October 2014 (Friday) to fill in their personal details (on FastRego) which includes their dietary requirements, travel details, rooming preferences or risk not having any of their preferences catered to during the period of the tournament.
Registration Policy
As per Council ratification, the registration policy of Malaysia Worlds 2015 will operate on the balance of achieving diversity and ensuring the competitive quality of WUDC.
(a) Diversity: We aim to allocate one team slot to every institution in the registration list before we begin to allocate second teams.
(b) Quality: A „Registration Priority“ List based on the competitive strength of institutions in the past 3 WUDCs will be formed. Teams will be allocated in accordance to that list.
Institutions on the list will be prioritised based on the average number of teams from that institution that has made the break in any language category over the past 3 WUDCs. Institutions with the same average will be ordered within that group by random. A host institution of WUDC will have their performance averaged for 2 out of the past 3 years so as to exempt them from competition on the year they hosted WUDC.
In tandem with Chennai WUDC’s registration policy, we would also like to similarly implement the following elements into our registration policy:
(1) Institutions with an average that is higher than 0.00 (i.e. institutions that have broken at least one team in the past 3 WUDCs) will receive their second team and institutions with an average of higher than 1.50 will receive their third team before institutions with an average of 0.00 receives a second team.
This policy reflects the commitment towards increasing the competitive quality of WUDC. For institutions that have broken an average of 1.5 teams or greater, at least half of their delegation from the past 3 years has broken at WUDC. We think these institutions are highly likely to bring third teams that would significantly add to the quality of the competition.
(2) Institutions that have not sent any teams to participate in the past 3 WUDCs are limited to the allocation of 1 team during registration. This is because all institutions with an average of 0.00 (i.e. institutions that have not broken a team at any of the past 3 WUDC) will have an equal chance of being ranked at the top of their group. Given this fact, we believe that institutions that have shown a commitment to WUDC and regularly attended WUDC should be prioritised for a second team allocation over brand new institutions. Having stated that, these new institutions may still request for more than one team but will only receive a second team allocation if the entire waiting list has been exhausted.
For the purposes of clarity and for a better understanding on how the above allocation system will operate, institutions may observe the following categories of allocation priority:
Institutions with a break average of 1.5 and higher – Bracket A Priority
Institutions with a break average of above 0.00 – Bracket B Priority
Institutions with a break average of 0.0 that has attended any of the past 3 WUDCs – Bracket C Priority
Institutions with a break average of 0.0 that has not attended any of the past 3 WUDCs – Bracket D Priority
The following document has been drafted to demonstrate how the registration system allocates teams based on the above categories:
Registration Form
All institutions can request up to 3 teams on the registration form. The remaining number of teams that are not granted will be placed on the waiting list.
Malaysia Worlds 2015 will enforce an n-1 judging requirement. This means that any institution that sends 2 teams must also send 1 judge and any institution that sends 1 team is not required to send an institutional judge.
However, institutions will be able to note on the registration form if they wish to send additional judges, should they wish to do so. Your request will be catered to after the registration process has been completed and after we have ascertained our capacity to accommodate more institutional judges.
Independent Judges
Individuals that are not affiliated with an institution and want to attend Malaysia Worlds 2015 can apply to do so at a later date. Further details will be available on our website at a later date.
WUDC Scholarship Programme
Applications for scholarship will tentatively open on 5 May 2014 (Monday). We will establish a separate Scholarship Committee to disseminate information regarding the application process and guidelines. Details will be made available in the near future.
„Come-and-Watch“ Packages
Courtesy of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Malaysia Worlds 2015 will also have a tourism partnership program for friends and families of participants to join in on the fun! We will providing „Come-and-Watch“ packages for interested applicants to observe the tournament portion of Malaysia Worlds for a few days before they embark on a full-fledged Malaysian holiday. The packages will be comprised of several holiday options for you to choose from at very affordable prices as well as access to the tournament to watch your friends or families in action. More information will be made available on our website in the future.
For any further inquiries or questions, please do not hesitate to direct them to convenor [at] malaysiaworlds2015 [dot] com.
Best,
Mai Mokhsein
Convenor
Malaysia WUDC 2015”
nbo/kem
