The PAUDC Championship is Coming Home

Midlands State University presented a final bid document pertaining to hosting the Pan African Universities Debate Championships (PAUDC) in December 2016. The council committee  approved Midlands State University to host the 2016 PAUDC. This year’s theme is ‘Madzimbabwe’ derived from the ancient Zimbabwean empire Great Zimbabwe from which the country takes its name.

This PAUDC will be the 9th edition of this prestigious competition. It is a great marketing initiative and a major economic boost for Zimbabwe and the city of Gweru as hundreds of foreigners will be visiting the country and utilising various services, products and infrastructure. This year will see a trophy being made in Zimbabwe that will be used for all future tournaments held by the PAUDC.

All events surrounding debate will be presented as #road2madzimbabwe16. As Midlands State University, we are honoured to follow this journey towards PAUDC 2016 in Zimbabwe!

More Excitement came from our debate team winning the PAUDC Championship held in Accra, Ghana. The following exhibits the magnitude of achievements and honours The Great Debaters won:

History made at PAUDC 2015 in Ghana

• MSU was the 1^st Zimbabwean Debate team to have all its teams breaking into the Octo Finals
• MSU was the 1^st Debate team to have a Female Public Speaking Champion
• MSU was the 1^st Zimbabwean Debate Team to be awarded best Adjudicator in Public Speaking
• MSU was the 1^st Zimbabwean institution to have two of their teams in the PAUDC semi-finals
• MSU set a Zimbabwean record of having two teams breaking with a total of 20 team points
• MSU is the 1^st Zimbabwean institution to have teams breaking in the top 3 (2 MSU teams were in the top 3)
• MSU was the 1^st Zimbabwean Debate team to be in the PAUDC Finals

Awards & Achievements

• 2016 PAUDC official Hosts
• PAUDC Council Deputy Executive Secretary
• Overall Zimbabwe Best Speakers Award
• Top Ten Best Speaker Award (position 4)
• PAUDC Public Speaking Best Adjudicator
• Top Ten Best Adjudicator Award (position 8)
• PAUDC Octo-finalist (1 Team)
• PAUDC Semi-finalist (1 Team)
• PAUDC Finalist (1 team)

PAUDC Public Speaking Champions