Students Will Try the Role of Politicians at Parliamentary Debate
On April 2nd and 3rd, 2016, an international student parliamentary debate tournament, HSE Open 2016, will take place at HSE.
HSE Open has been organized by the HSE Parliamentary Debate Club for the past six years. The club itself was founded in the 1990s. Its participants strive to constantly improve their public speaking skills – a competency they may well need in many real life situations.
Public speaking championships are held every year in various countries, with the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), which attracts from 150 to 400 teams, being the leading exponent. WUDC participants have been involved in the HSE championship as jury members many times. In 2013, students from Oxford University, including Ashish Kumar (soon afterwards he was crowned best speaker on the planet by the WUDC) took on the judging role, and in 2015, HSE welcomed Michael Shapiro and Yael Bezalel, finalists of the world championship.
This year HSE Open will welcome guests from Dubai, students of the New York University branch, who will compete against teams from the HSE.
The tournament will be held in English, although this won’t be a problem for HSE students. In February 2016, students from the HSE Debate Club made it through to the finals at Manchester IV, a championship in Great Britain, in the Open category (native speaker level) and became the first Russian team in this category.
Not only language proficiency, but acting skills together with comprehensive knowledge are important for HSE Open participants. The judges appoint them as Prime Minister, opposition member, and so on. They should demonstrate their understanding of the national and global economic and political situation when improvising a debate on a topic selected as part of a draw procedure.
After five rounds, the teams pass to semi-finals, and then four of them make it to the finals. Cups are awarded not only to the winning teams.in addition to the team competition, participants get individual points for convincing arguments, clear language, and erudition. The best speaker and the best judge (the one conducted the most interesting review of a speech) also get prizes.
Alexander Skvortsov, curator of the HSE English-language Debate Club, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, 3-rd year student
‘These debates teach us to expound our point of view and defend our position by means of convincing arguments. This is important for graduates of any university, since this can helps to build a career and enable you to be an open minded person, with the ability to review your own position when it collides with an opposite one. Debates are not kitchen table discussions, but an artform that develops leadership skills and helps to bring success in life.’
The tournament will take place at 9/11 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, Room 325. See the schedule.
See also:
‘The Russians Are Friendly! And that's Coming from an American’
On April 2nd and 3rd, the Higher School of Economics held this year’s international student parliamentary debate tournament, HSE Open 2016. The tournament was a way for one American professor to get to know Russia, and the competition showed that students are capable of turning the art of debate into a real live performance. Not only do the students have excellent English, but they also think in a different language when it comes to politics and economics.