British High Commission launches ‘GREAT Debate’ competition

Islamabad: The British High Commission on Thursday launched the fifth edition of its GREAT debate competition December 2019 to March 2020 in six cities across Pakistan.

The GREAT Debate is a debating competition for university students. There will been six events – in six different cities (Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Faisalabad) involving students from leading universities across Pakistan – and the winner and runner-up of each round will compete in the final in Islamabad.

GREAT debate competition is launched with a regional round at the Government College University (GC University) Lahore.

The competition featured 20 students from 8 different universities including Punjab University, GC University Lahore, UET Lahore, FC College, LUMS, to name a few. At the end of an intense competition, Mustafa Shaukat from LUMS was the winner and Muhammad Ali from Punjab University was the runner-up.

Director of Communication, British High Commission Fouzia Younis said that over the past five years, we have engaged over one thousand debaters and partnered with leading universities in 12 cities across Pakistan through our GREAT Debate competition.

She further said the competition gives us an opportunity to celebrate our shared tradition of lively, reasoned debate as well as give students a platform to express their views and opinions about topics that matter to both Pakistan and the UK.

Fouzia Younis said that it’s only right that this year’s debate theme is focused on the global impact of climate change, especially as the UK prepares to host a major UN summit on this important agenda in November 2020.

Vice Chancellor of GCU Prof. Dr. Asghar Zaidi said that the Great Debate is an excellent initiative by the British High Commission Pakistan, which provides the students with a wonderful opportunity to engage with various ideas pertaining to the socio-economic issues of Pakistan.

GC University Lahore takes pride in hosting this year’s regional round in collaboration with the British High Commission. We are excited to join hands for this initiative and collaborate in order to develop a healthy culture of discourse, and to improve the quality of higher education in the country he said.

University students across Pakistan who are interested in debating and taking part in the GREAT Debate competition can register immediately by registering on greatdebate.com.pk.

This is the fifth annual edition of the British High Commission’s GREAT Debate competition. Since 2015, the competition has taken place across 15 universities and 12 cities in Pakistan. The previous winners of the GREAT Debate competition have included: Gaudhan Aslam from Forman Christian College in Lahore, Taha Ahmed from Aga Khan University in Karachi, Mohiba Ahmed and Haris Ali Virk from Government College University in Lahore. The winner and runner-up of the overall competition will receive a scholarship reward to contribute towards their tuition fees.