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Published on October 22, 2007

This is the first time Thailand has hosted the largest such academic event on earth and only the fourth Asian country after the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

"Since it is the highest level of student debating, only the creme of the crop from participating universities will be involved," said Assumption's deputy vice president for student affairs, Bancha Skuldee.

There will 395 teams from 32 countries competing, including those from Princeton and Yale in the United States, the London School of Economics and the University of Tokyo.

Local representatives are Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Khon Kaen and Mahidol universities.

"The competition will help open the minds of youth with an international outlook," said tournament convenor Thepparith Senamngern.

"It is a good stage for Thai students to practise and gain persuasion skills in communication," Thepparith said, adding academics was not a problem among Thai students, given the number of physics or chemistry prizes they had secured.

"What we lack is [English] communication skills. That's why, when racing for a career at international level, they often fall behind Singapore and other countries."

The debating style will be the British parliamentary format - teams of two speakers competing at a time. The two sides are called government and opposition. Each team is divided into opening and closing speakers.

Each team will debate at least nine topics in the first round. The winning team will have debated as many as 13 topics.

"What's special is that competitors will get to see their topics just 15 minutes before the debate," said Bancha. "So, they need to have a lot of general knowledge and be well read because they will never know what topic they will be debating."

The topics range from politics to economics and society to environment.

The winner of tournament will receive a trophy from His Majesty the King.

In addition to the debates there will be a forum on women in developing countries.

The tournament was established in 1981 and held first at Glasgow University Union in Scotland, with 43 teams from seven nations competing.

It is open to all degree levels.

Last year's event at the University of British Columbia in Canada saw a team from the University of Sydney, Australia, emerge victorious.

For more information, visit assumptionworlds.com.

Watchara Saengsrisin

 The Nation