English Department Student Association (EDSA) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) successfully organized the 4th English debate so-called National English Education Debate (NEED) UMY 2015. The debate was for students of English Education Department and English Literature across Indonesia. It was conducted on 24-26 December at Graduate School of UMY.
“NEED UMY always shows better improvement each year. There were 31 teams joining NEED UMY 2015, but 3 teams walked out on D-Day,” informed Widia Kusuma Wardani, Chief of the committee in an interview on Tuesday (29/12) at Public Relations and Protocol office of UMY.
Widia stated that the debate motions were dealing with not only education and literature but also social, law, and economy. “The motions were general. It aimed at showing that the participants have broad knowledge,” she said.
She told that the debate competition comprised four rounds, namely preliminary round, quarter final, semifinal, and final. Besides, UMY sent two teams to compete in the debate, but only a team broke to quarter final.
She mentioned that four teams of three universities passed to final round. They were two teams of University of Ahmad Dahlan (UAD), namely Team UAD A and Team UAD B, a team of University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), and Malang State University. “The winner of NEED UMY 2015 was Team UAD A. The team admitted that they have been well-prepared for long time,” Widia conveyed.
She expected that NEED UMY could be a forum for students to express their ability in debate. “I wished that NEED UMY could be better and better, as well as this national debate competition could become a Southeast or international debate competition,” she hoped.
