NUDC 2021 : UPI Team Successfully Entered Into The Final Quarter in The Novice Category

UPI provides various choices of Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa (Students’ Unions) that can accommodate students’ talents and interests, ranging from the fields of science to culture, language, and sports. One of the UKMs at UPI that can develop students’ potential in the language field is the English Debating Society (EDS).

EDS UKM is an activity that focuses on debating using English about current social and political issues discussed in society. In addition, there are also external and internal activities. One of the external activities is to hold an event called UPI UNION where EDS members usually have a debate among themselves watched by students interested in debating and which can also be attended by participants from the general public, including students outside UPI. Moreover, EDS members also conduct Class 101 that teachings the basics of debating and information on English competition such as speech, storytelling, and others.

For internal activities, they usually hold meetings twice a week, and the meeting is used for discussion and debate practice among EDS members, to develop debating skills. From these various activities, UKM EDS can accommodate the talents of students in the language field, especially English. For this period, UKM EDS was chaired by Jonathan, a student majoring in computer engineering, FPMIPA 2018.

This year, UKM EDS participated in an annual competition organized by the Directorate General of Learning and Student Affairs, namely the National University Debating Championship (NUDC). There are 112 teams that have participated in this year’s NUDC competition which are representatives from various universities in Indonesia, Representatives from UPI are students who have been selected by UKM EDS.

Intan Anisya Puspa Jelita is one of the students who passed the selection, who passed the selection to represent the UPI team. She is a student majoring in English language and literature 2020 from class 3B. In an interview with Intan, she said that participating in this event was not easy. She had to take part in NUDC selection and training to prepare debate materials. Intan and her partner Adinda Putri Gunawan made preparations for this NUDC competition for about 5 months. For the debate material, Intan said, “The material we talk about the most are social issues in society, and also issues related to international relations”.

NUDC has been held  through Zoom Meeting from August 24 to 30, 2021. Of all the 112 teams that took part in this debate competition, the TEAM from UPI, represented by Intan Anisa and Adinda, made it to the Semifinals in the Novice Category. Those are the Semifinalists from the UPI team who became the 8 Best Teams. (Siti Hana Nurhasanah, Mahasiswa Prodi Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, FPBS, UPI)