Debating Club St. Gallen

Info

The Debating Club is the place to learn more about the theory and practice of public speaking and open debates. We meet on Wednesday, 6:15, in 01-U127.

Geschichte

The Debating Club

Besides your professional knowledge, comprehensive rhetorical skills represent the alpha and omega in many areas of both work and social life: While you may be bringing up important arguments, your audience might nevertheless remain unimpressed if these are not presented in a convincing way. Thus, apart from fostering your professional competencies you should also master the art of public speaking.

The good thing about it: Public speaking isn’t rocket science, but practice, practice practice. Fulfilling its mission to improve the rhetorical skills of all of its participants, the Debating Club provides a platform for every student to conduct this practice, learn about the theoretical background of debating and meet new people from different majors and with different academic backgrounds.

To participate, students do not necessarily have to be a member of the club – everyone is welcome for the weekly debate!

During the semester, our members also regularly join debating tournaments throughout Europe to compete with other debating clubs, meet new people and enjoy visiting other places. In case you are interested in joining our tournament teams, feel free to ask about it at the next weekly debate – there are tournaments for both, beginners and advanced debaters.

History

Founded in 2003, the Debating Club has become students’ first choice for rhetorical education at the University of St. Gallen. Starting off with a weekly German Debate, the Club also began to offer English weekly debates as well as participation in tournaments in autumn 2014. From the very first debate on, the emphasis always was put on both, theory and practice: Each meeting consists of two parts, a theoretical introduction as well as an actual debate about a current political or social topic.