New year’s daywas quiet at World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worls) in Manila:Most debater had the chance to take a tour around the Philippinian capital, relaxed and hang out at the hotel. That was not true today for the national delegates. They had to sit in the WUDC Council where they decide about a new Council president, the confirmation of the current bid for next Worlds and the bid for the Worlds after that.

And there we have a new president: Steve Johnson, until recently “registrar”, followed Jens Fischer in the office. With him on the Council board are Eoin Kilkenny (registrar) and Coulter King (secretary). The host for WUDC 2013 was confirmed as expected: the Berlin Debating Union. In December, debaters from all over the World will assemble in the German capital – Welcome, everybody!

A sort of problem is the bid for Worlds 2014 – there is none! Rumours are amass that bids from England, Indonesia, China and the USA are under preparation. But confirmation and dementi alike are contradictory on the internet. The Council has now postponed the deadline: Bidders have to come up with their presentations until March. Well, we’ll see then…

A heated discussion was heard about expanding the break to octos at Worlds which began in Botswana last year. Now the Council made a decision: All teams on 18+ points are going to octos with “pre-octos” for the bottom teams narrwoing the field down to 32 team if necessary. Top teams will automatically procede to “real” octos. Achte Minute explicitly encourages discussion about this decision – please use the space for comments below or write an essay for Achte Minute stating you pro or con opinion. For more info write to team [at] achteminute [dot] de.

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Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Stylebecame the mandatory format for this annual tournament. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, the international debating community assembles in Manila for the second time: 1999′s host was Ateneo University in the Philippinian capital – the first time for WUDC to come to Asia at all. Language of debate is English and there are three categories: “Main” for native speakers, “ESL” (English as a Second Language) and “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language). Current World Champions are Monash A from Australien (“main break”), Haifa A from Israel (ESL) and Tokyo B from Japan (EFL).