WUDC

What is WUDC?

The World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) is the world's biggest debating tournament, held annually in English with teams representing universities from across the world.

The 2025 Open Champions are Ryan Lafferty and Madeleine Wu from Dartmouth College. 

The 2025 English as a Second Language Champions are David Safro and Maj Hrovatin from the University of Ljubljana.

The 2025 English as a Foreign Language Champions are Rachel Chen and Jennifer Marcellyn Cen from Universitas Bina Nusantara.

Panama WUDC 2025

The next edition of WUDC will be held in Panama City, Panama from December 27, 2024 to January 4, 2025. 

Chief Adjudication Panel: Hadar Goldberg (Co-Chief), Juanita Hincapie (Co-Chief), Kat Cheng, Shudipto Ahmed, Jane Mentzinger, Erasmus Mawuli Segbefia, Marta Vasic and Pranav Kagalkar

Tabulation: Giza Pavone (Co-Director), Peta Hillier (Co-Director), Étienne Beaule, Lucien Mendela, Nora Flynn-McIver, Simran Makwane and Valeria Corona Ramiréz

Host Team: Daniela Noriega (Convenor), Caroline Quinzada (Managing Director) 

Further information is available here

Sofia WUDC 2026

The Council has also ratified the bid convened by Nikolay Angelov and Rumen Marinov to host WUDC 2026 in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Bids to host WUDC 2027 will be considered at the Main Session of Council to be convened at Panama WUDC on January 1st 2025.  

Tab Links

Click the relevant link below for the Madrid WUDC 2023, Belgrade WUDC 2022, and Korea WUDC 2021 tabs.

WUDC is governed by the World Universities Debating Council, which sets the parameters of the tournament with the rules of debate, eligibility to participate, and in the selection of the annual host.