United Asian Debating Championships

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The United Asian Debating Championship (UADC) is an annual debating tournament for teams from universities in Asia. It is the largest inter-varsity Parliamentary Debate tournament in Asia, [1] with over 600 participants. The UADC holds debates in the Asian 3-on-3 format Parliamentary Debating. The 1st UADC was hosted by Assumption University, Bangkok in 2010. [1]

Contents

The UADC was created after a decision to merge the two separate championships that were held after the Asian Debating community split in 2005 - the Asian Universities Debating Championship (AUDC) and the All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships (AIDC or "All-Asians"). The decision to unite the two competing tournaments, and thus, create a single debate championship for Asia was taken at the last Asian Universities Debating Championships in 2009.

Origin

Arising out of a unification of the Asian Universities Debating Championship as well as the All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships, UADC represents the results of efforts to bridge the schism that emerged in Asian debating.

Institutions who were unhappy about aspects of the organisation of the All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships established the Asian Universities Debating Championship in 2005 as an alternative to the All-Asians Championship. [2] Since then, many universities in Asia with strong debating traditions – most notably universities from the Philippines and Singapore, including all except one of the institutions who won the All-Asian championships up to 2004 – had chosen not to participate in the All-Asian Intervarsity Championships and have instead entered teams in the Asian Universities Debating Championship.

While not necessarily intended to be a rival tournament, the last three AUDCs coincided with the schedule of the All-Asian Championship, which made it impractical for teams to attend both tournaments.

After many overtures, including a proposal to have an Asian Unity Tournament in Multimedia University, Malaysia, [3] which was not accepted by the AUDC Council, it was agreed that the All-Asian Universities would attend the AUDC Championships held in 2009 in Dhaka hosted by East West University. It was decided here in Council that the two tournaments would unite in the next edition, and the name of this new tournament would be the United Asian Debating Championships.

The Union

The Union that decided the unification was chaired by Estelle Osorio from De La Salle University. The next chair, Vikram Balasubramanian of Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, was elected in the same union meeting.

The 1st United Asians Debate Championship was hosted by Assumption University, Thailand. Dino de Leon of De La Salle University chaired the Union meetings as acting chair. Sharmila Parmanand of Ateneo de Manila University was elected as the chair for year 2010–2011.

Format of the event

The UADC, like the AUDC and the All-Asians, is held annually in May, but was later transferred in June due to the academic calendar change. The competition involves eight preliminary rounds, which become power-paired as the tournament progresses, matching the strongest-performing teams against each other.

The preliminary rounds are followed by a "break" announcement, at which the teams proceeding to elimination rounds are announced. Separate breaks are announced for English as Foreign language (EFL) team competition. 16 teams proceed to octo-finals. While preliminary rounds are usually judged by up to three judges, break rounds are judged by panels of five or seven, and the finals by a panel of nine.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2020 edition of UADC was the first ever Digital UADC, it was hosted by the Bangladesh Debating Council with the support of Independent University Bangladesh & Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka.

Past tournaments

YearChampionsRunners-upEFL WinnersHosts
2025 Flag of Singapore.svg National University of Singapore Flag of Singapore.svg National University of Singapore Flag of Bangladesh.svg Bangladesh University of Professionals Flag of Singapore.svg EduDrift
2024 Flag of Singapore.svg Nanyang Technological University Flag of the Philippines.svg University of the Philippines Diliman Flag of Macau.svg Macau University of Science and Technology Flag of Malaysia.svg Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking and Berjaya University College
2023 Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Korea (1899).svg Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Flag of Malaysia.svg Intertext Education
2022 Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Nepal.svg Tribhuvan University Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Peking University Flag of Malaysia.svg Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking and Taylor's University
2021 Flag of Malaysia.svg University of Malaya Flag of Japan.svg University of Tokyo Flag of Korea (1899).svg Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Flag of Singapore.svg EduDrift
2020 Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Malaysia.svg Taylor's University Flag of Indonesia.svg Institut Teknologi Bandung Flag of Bangladesh.svg Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka and Independent University, Bangladesh
2019 Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Bangladesh.svg Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka Flag of Indonesia.svg Binus University Flag of Vietnam.svg Vinschool and Vietnam National University, Hanoi - International School
2018 Flag of Bangladesh.svg Independent University, Bangladesh Flag of Bangladesh.svg Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka Flag of Indonesia.svg Binus University Flag of Indonesia.svg Institut Teknologi Bandung
2017 Flag of Singapore.svg National University of Singapore Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Indonesia.svg Institut Teknologi Bandung Flag of Cambodia.svg SpringBoard4Cambodia
2016 Flag of Malaysia.svg International Islamic University Malaysia Flag of Malaysia.svg Universiti Teknologi MARA Flag of Indonesia.svg Universitas Gadjah Mada Flag of Thailand.svg Assumption University [4]
2015 Flag of Malaysia.svg International Islamic University Malaysia Flag of Malaysia.svg Universiti Teknologi MARA Flag of Indonesia.svg Universitas Gadjah Mada Flag of Indonesia.svg Udayana University and Bina Nusantara University [5]
2014 Flag of Singapore.svg Nanyang Technological University Flag of Malaysia.svg International Islamic University Malaysia Flag of Indonesia.svg Universitas Gadjah Mada Flag of Singapore.svg Nanyang Technological University
2013 Flag of the Philippines.svg University of the Philippines Diliman Flag of Singapore.svg National University of Singapore Flag of Indonesia.svg Institut Teknologi Bandung Flag of the Philippines.svg University of the Philippines Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University
2012 Flag of Singapore.svg Nanyang Technological University Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Indonesia.svg Bina Nusantara University Flag of Malaysia.svg Multimedia University [6]
2011 Flag of Singapore.svg National University of Singapore Flag of the Philippines.svg University of the Philippines Diliman Flag of Indonesia.svg Bakrie University Flag of Macau.svg University of Macao [7]
2010 Flag of the Philippines.svg Ateneo de Manila University Flag of Singapore.svg Nanyang Technological University Flag of Indonesia.svg Institut Teknologi Bandung Flag of Thailand.svg Assumption University [4]

Best Speakers of the Tournament

YearSpeakerUniversity
2025Cavan Tay [8] National University of Singapore (Singapore)
2024Ian Dylan Chai [9] National University of Singapore (Singapore)
2023Mikko Vitug [10] Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
2022David Demitri Africa [11] Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
2021Irene Dela Cruz [12] Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
2020Kanan Ishizaka, Sajid Khandaker [13] University of Tokyo (Japan), Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka (Bangladesh)
2019Mikaela Filoteo Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
2018Mikaela Filoteo and Katrina Chan Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
2017Andrei Buendia, Sajid Khandaker Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines), Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka (Bangladesh)
2016Mubarrat Wassey International Islamic University Malaysia (Malaysia)
2015 Syed Saddiq International Islamic University Malaysia (Malaysia) [5]
2014Mai Mokhsein Universiti Teknologi MARA (Malaysia)
2013Imran Rahim National University of Singapore (Singapore)
2012Pearl Simbulan University of the Philippines Diliman (Philippines)
2011Imran Rahim National University of Singapore (Singapore)

Future tournaments

References

  1. 1 2 "About the UADC". MMU UADC. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  2. "Invitation to the First AUDC". Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  3. MMU Unity Bid Document
  4. 1 2 "Assumption UADC 2010". UADC 2010. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  5. 1 2 Dina Murad (12 June 2015). "IIUM debate team is Asia's best". The Star Online . Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  6. Amjad, Saad bin. "UADC 2012". Saad bin Amjad. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  7. Amjad, Saad bin. "UADC 2011". Saad bin Amjad. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  8. "Guangzhou UADC 2025 | Speaker Tab". edudrift.calicotab.com/uadc2025/. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
  9. "Malaysia UADC 2024 | Speaker Tab". malaysiauadc2023.calicotab.com. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  10. "Malaysia UADC 2023 | Speaker Tab". malaysiauadc2023.calicotab.com. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  11. "UADC 2022 Speaker Tab".
  12. "UADC 2021 Speaker Tab". Archived from the original on 2021-10-24. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  13. "BD UADC 2020 Speaker Tab".