UTM National Intervarsity Debating Championship 2021 was an online debate competition for university students organized by the Student Residential College Committee (JKM) 2020/2021 for two days from 15 January 2021 to 16 January 2021 in which students from other universities were also welcomed to participate. The topics involved for each round including economy, politics, environment, philosophy, feminism, and international relations. It is hoped that participants will be having fun engaging in the competition where they can express their views from their perspectives, gain a sense of confidence and polish their soft skills by improving communication and teamwork skills. This program was held in the UNIDC’21 Discord server and officiated by KTDI Principal, Lt Kol Prof. Madya Dr. Mohd Noor Azli Bin Hj. Ali Khan. The program started at 2.50 p.m. on 15 January 2021.
The objective of this program was to provide an online platform for students to voice out their opinions and carry-out debating culture, hence, enhancing and deepening students’ knowledge and understanding of current issues. Students could boost their confidence and self-esteem through interactions with others when debating. This program also was to hone critical thinking and analytical thinking skills among students as well as sharpen debating, speaking, and listening skills among them.
During the publicity period, twelve groups from seven universities around the world have registered as participants in this program. Among those participants, three teams were from Brickfields Asia College (BAC), one team from Cambridge University, Centre for Foundation, two teams from International Islamic University Malaysia (CFS IIUM), one team from City University of Hong Kong, three teams from University Teknologi Nasional (UNITEN), one team from Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) and the last team from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Six of the participants were international students from Singapore, Serbia, Bangladesh, and Hong Kong.
Participants debated vigorously for two days and finally, the judges decided four of the twelve groups made it to the finals. The debaters that made it to the finals were Jonathan Yap and Han Yang from team Gresham Boys (Cambridge University), Triman, Eudy, Cheng and Dinesh from team Lower BAC Pain and Kronik BAC Pain (Brickfields Asia College (BAC)) and Alau and Ammar from team Sexy Bapa Perutusan (University Teknologi Nasional (UNITEN)). The final round took about one hour, and the overall result was announced by the adjudicator. The final best speaker was awarded to Jonathan Yap from Gresham Boys, followed by Dinesh from Kronik BAC Pain, Han Yang from Gresham Boys, Cheng from Kronik BAC Pain and Triman from Lower BAC Pain. The second runner up team was awarded to Lower BAC Pain from Brickfields Asia College (BAC), the first runner up was awarded to Kronik BAC Pain from Brickfields Asia College (BAC), and the champion of UTM National Intervarsity Debating Championship 2021 was awarded to Gresham Boys from Cambridge University. The program ended at 1.00 p.m. on 16 January 2021.