WUDC 2012: Monash Wins Title from OG Again

#28 Monash University B (Amit Golder/Kiran Iyer) won the 2012 World Universities Debating Championships in Manila after defeating #2 University of Oxford B (Steph Bell & Jen Coyne), #8 Stanford University A (Faris Mohiuddin & Michael Baer) and #18 University of Sydney B (Elle Jones & Daniel Swain) in the grandfinal that had the motion "This House Supports Nationalism". Golder/Iyer were the Opening Government in that debate, the same role another Monash team had when they championed last year's WUDC.


Golder/Iyer have been on fire since late 2011, winning the Victoria IV and the Melbourne Mini. Their WUDC win was the second time Monash bagged back-to-back WUDC victories. No university has accomplished that feat before. The Melbourne-based school's first and second trophies came from the 1999 and 2000 editions. With 4 titles, Monash is a trophy shy from record holders University of Glasgow and University of Sydney that boast 5.

Ben Woolgar from #1 University of Oxford A topped the overall WUDC 2012 speaker tab. The ESL title went to #1ESL University of Tel Aviv A (Omer Nevo & Sella Nevo) and the brothers also took 1st and 2nd best ESL speaker titles. The winners of the EFL category were #2EFL Ewha University A from South Korea. Goran Jankuloski from #3EFL University of Belgrade C was the best EFL speaker.

Indonesia sent a large contingent this year with 17 teams. Two of them, #1EFL University of Indonesia C (Ahmad Naufal Dai & Irene Severina) and #8EFL Sekolah Tinggi Akuntansi Negara (Teddy Triatmojo & Halim Nuswantoro), reached the EFL semifinals. Naufal also won the 3rd best EFL speaker title but he was below schoolmate Roderick Sibarani of UI A who stood at 2nd best on the EFL speaker tab. Indonesia also caught attention after news that there could be an Indonesian bid for WUDC 2015 emerged.