Two students from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) Universitas Brawijaya (UB), Hemalia Kusumadewi and Irfan Azhari from the International Relations Study Program, won 3rd place in the 2024 National University Debating Competition (NUDC).
This achievement also broke the record for UB because for the past 8 years it has never achieved good achievements in the NUDC event.
This prestigious national-level debate competition organized by the National Achievement Center of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture uses the British Parliamentary format, where each team consists of two people.
Dr. Bambang Dwi Prasetyo, S.Sos., M.Si., Deputy Dean for Student Affairs of FISIP expressed his appreciation and pride for the achievements of Hemalia and Irfan.
“This achievement cannot happen suddenly. We create an atmosphere among student organizations to form debate communities. The intensity of the training sometimes depends, but the closer the competition is, the more intensive the training becomes,” he said, Wednesday (12/6/2024).
Hemalia and Irfan were not actually combined from the start. However, since Irfan’s partner had graduated, it was decided to pair Irfan with Hemalia. This combination turned out to win 1st place at Universitas Brawijaya level before advancing to the regional and national levels.
“Hemalia is also a top student at FISIP. After winning at UB level, they received more intensive mentoring with a national debate coach,” added Bambang Dwi Prasetyo.
After becoming UB representatives, they underwent selection at the East Java level and won 1st place. This result led them to compete at the national level. Hemalia and Irfan won 3rd place.
“This is an extraordinary and proud achievement, because this debate competition was organized by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, at the same level as PIMNAS,” he said.
According to Bambang Dwi, this achievement is something to be proud of because the achievement in NUDC is equivalent to the achievement in the National Scientific Week (PIMNAS)
“In my opinion, this is something very enjoyable and proud, of course not only for the institution. But the students’ portfolios will certainly provide added value for them,” he explained.
Furthermore, FISIP plans to make debate a characteristic and character of the faculty through the means of student organizations in FISIP starting from the Social Science Research Agency (BARIS) FISIP UB to the Ministry of Innovation and Work (INOYA) BEM FISIP UB.
“We will intensify coaching and bring in national trainers. We also plan to institutionalize this debate activity so that it becomes a characteristic of FISIP,” concluded Bambang.
Through these steps, FISIP hopes to continue to produce quality debaters who are able to compete at the national and international levels. (Atho/FISIP PR/OKY/UB PR/ Trans. Iir)
