Debate Competition 2023

UTAR Centre for Foundation Studies of Sungai Long Campus organised a debate competition on 15 September 2023 at its campus in KB100.

The objective of the competition was to encourage students to generate higher-order and effective critical thinking skills in addressing the central issues of the given topic. It also aimed to provide participants the opportunity to elucidate their standpoint through the utilisation of rhetorical eloquence besides improving their confidence, poise and self-esteem.

The debate team consisted of the two best groups that were selected by the Chairperson, Ms Jasvin Kaur Sidhu Harnek Singh based on the debate presentation assignment in class. The groups were assigned to a debate topic and were required to present their debate to the panel of judges.

The debate competition began with an opening speech by the Director of Centre for Foundation Studies, Ms Melissa Stefanie Netto. In her speech, Ms Melissa expressed her gratitude towards her colleagues, judges, students and participants for putting this competition together. She also wished participants all the best for the competition. Moving on, there was also a speech by Ms Jasvin, who wished the participants all the best for the debate competition.

From left: Ms Melissa and Ms Jasvin delivering their speech

The debate team consisted of The Bound Team, which was on the affirming side, and The Higher Debaters Team, which was on the opposing side. The title of the debate topic was “ChatGPT Should Be Embraced in the Education System”. The debate consisted of two rounds and each round lasted for approximately 30 minutes.

The Bound Team

The Higher Debaters Team

The affirming team began with a brief introduction about ChatGPT’s background and its usage, its benefits to students and educators as well as how it made learning more interesting and entertaining. They also mentioned that ChatGPT allowed educators to generate assessment questions and allowed educators to have a standardised framework at the same time.

The opposing team opposed the ideas by stating that ChatGPT inhibits students’ critical thinking as students might opt for a quicker route and they will not think out of the box. Besides, they also stated that AI discourages students from engaging in active learning and therefore students will only have a surface level of understanding. Lastly, they also highlighted that AI cannot replace the teacher’s role.

After the debate session, it was announced that The Higher Debaters Team was selected as the Champion for the Debate Competition while Alia Sufia binti Mohamed from The Bound Team emerged as the best speaker for the Debate Competition.

Judges deciding the winners

The idea and initiative of organising the debate competition at the Foundation level was founded by Ms Jasvin. She organised the first Debate Competition on 9 September 2022, (202205 Trimester), and this year, the second debate competition on 15 September 2023, (202305 Trimester). The first debate competition at the Foundation level was equally successful as the second one held recently.

The Debate Competition ended with a group photograph.

Fifth from left: Ms Melissa, Ms Jasvin and judges with debaters