Frequently Asked Questions

What is university debating?

University debating is made up of student-run university debating societies that host regular debate sessions and training for their members, and compete against each other nationally and internationally. Debating is an organised argument, usually between two teams on a pre-arranged topic. 

What style of debating is done? Is it the same as high school?

The university debating year is split into two parts; Semester 1 debating is done in Australasian 3 v 3 debating style, which is the same as NSW high school debating; Semester 2 is done in British Parliamentary style.

Do I need to have experience to join the debating society?

Not at all! Debating welcomes newcomers, and there are plenty of resources to help you get started. We run little seminars at most internals sessions on our monday nights, that go over skills for novices as well as different topic areas. If you are new to debating completely, our friends at the Monash Association of Debaters have a great introductory video that gives you a taste of how it all works, and their youtube channel has plenty of examples of other debates.

What topics do you debate?

Anything and everything! We mostly focus on topical policy issues, like social issues, economics, politics, international relations and anything that most ordinary people would reasonably be expected to know about. Sometimes there are more crazy and out-there topics that delve into philosophy, the meaning of life and more for more experienced debaters at some tournaments.

What are tournaments like?

Tournaments are amazing experiences to meet new people, visit crazy social events, travel to places you never would otherwise and develop your debating skills. They are between 4 (Easters, Womens) and 8 (Australs, Worlds) days long, and we send both debaters and adjudicators. We send plenty of novices/newcomers to tournaments, and we host trials to send teams that we are allocated. There are 4 major tournaments each year, two of which are usually held in Australia each year. Find out more at our competitions page.

How do I get involved?!

Check out our getting involved page. The best way is to keep an eye on our social media (Facebook, Twitter) and Events page, or attend one of our Internals events each Monday during the university semester which you'll hear about on our social media. Give us a like to never miss an event!

Glossary

Below are a list of terms you may hear thrown around during an internals session, on our Facebook page or really anytime during a debating social. By no means are these words essential to know, but can be useful jargon to sound like you know what you're talking about (when really none of us do).

  • Australs: The Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships — see here.

  • Adj: short for Adjudicator, someone who judges the debate and gives the result.

  • Aff/Neg: short for Affirmative/Negative (teams) in a 3v3 debate.

  • BP: British Parliamentary style of debating, seen in Semester 2.

  • Breaking/broke: To reach a finals round of a tournament. eg. "Omg becky, we totally just broke at Australs"

  • Comparative: A word that doesnt really mean that much, but debaters use it all the time to mean the "counterfactual" or "alternative" proposed by the other team.

  • Contingent (n): The group of people we send to a tournament (eg. "the UNSW contingent is looking mighty fine today")

  • Debsoc: The affectionately shortened name of the UNSW Debating Society.

  • Donut: Coming last in a British Parliamentary debate. BP debates have four teams, where the team that comes fourth receives 0 points, 0 resembling a donut.

  • Easters: The Australian Intervarsity Debating Championships held around Easter — the de facto Australian national debating tournament, mostly aimed at novices — see here.

  • Gov/Opp: The two sides in a BP debate, government and opposition.

  • Half, opening/closing: Opening half is the first two teams in a BP debate, closing the latter two.

  • Internals: A weekly event hosted by the society, where there is usually a little seminar on debating followed by debates for all who have registered on the night.

  • Novice: A word with many definitions. Technically refers to a debater who has not yet attended Australs/Worlds as a debater, or not yet attended Easters twice. More generally speaking it can refer to anyone who is relatively new to debating (not derogatory).

  • Motions: Synonym for topics; eg. "The motion of this debate is that we should..."

  • Majors: Major tournaments; ie. Easters/Australs/Womens/Worlds

  • Minis: Smaller tournaments run by societies that usually have less than 100 people in attendance, run frequently throughout the year.

  • Topic selection: Where you are presented with three topics in 3v3 debating, and you select your preference & veto topics in order to narrow it down to one topic.

  • THBT: "This House Believes That" — often said at the start of a topic in BP debating, eg. "This house believes that McDonalds is better than KFC"

  • THW: "This House Would" — often said at the start of a topic in BP debating, when the topic requires you to do something, eg. "This house would abolish the death penalty"

  • Service Points: A point system where you achieve points by debating with novices, adjudicating debates or helping our society at our events, in which you need points to be able to receive a subsidy to attend a tournament.

  • Subsidy: Either an Arc @ UNSW subsidy or Society Subsidy, whereby Arc or our society pays you to attend a tournament, after you help us out by accruing service points.

  • Womens: The Australasian Womens Debating Championship usually held in September. This tournament is only open to debaters who are non cis male. See here.

  • WUDC/Worlds: The Worlds Universities Debating Championship. See here.

  • 3v3: A style of debating done in NSW High Schools and Semester 1 of university debating, whereby two teams of 3 members debate (affirmative/negative teams).