NUEDC Becomes NUDC; Changes Go Beyond New Name

The education ministry has dropped the word "English" in the national BP tournament, changing the event's name to the National Universities Debating Championships (NUDC). However, that is not the only thing that has changed, according to uploads on the ministry's website. Click here to access the site. The most substantial revision is the winner of the novice category will no longer get a ticket to the World Universities Debating Championships, which will take place next in Chennai, India. The ministry will now only send the 3 best teams in the main final and the top team on the tab.

The WUDC ticket for the best novice team was one reason behind a trend among some novice squads in past NUEDCs to forego opportunities to debate in the main elimination round even though they got into the top 32. Many of them preferred to debate in the novice finals where rewards, including a WUDC ticket, were easier to obtain. This practice of sand-bagging made teams ranked lower than those novices able to advance into the main knockouts. The result was the 32 teams in the octofinals were not the actual best 32.

Outside of the WUDC tickets, the reward system will stay the same. All champions and finalists in both categories will receive prize money and trophies while top 10 main and novice speakers will get medals. The definition of novice for NUDC 2013 will be set by the chief adjudicator who has not been chosen yet.

The dates and venue for NUDC are also still unclear. The ministry only gave a rough timeline similar to the one used in recent years. The regionals will take place in May while the national round will be held in June. The division of the regions will continue to follow the Kopertis system, which is the way private Indonesian universities are regionally monitored. Each of the 12 regions will send the best 8 teams to the nationals, which will have 96 squads -- 192 debaters and 96 N1 adjudicators. Participants must be registered in March or April at respective regional offices and substitutions are not allowed. Favourites Universitas Bakrie had to forfeit the national rounds last year after one of the speakers chose to take a scholarship after the regionals.