What We Do

The UCLU Debating society conducts various activities during the year. Apart from our weekly Monday night debates- which are public debates with a certain amount of free wine and contraversial topics (and sometimes high-profile speakers), we also run both debating and public speaking workshops for those who want to compete in Inter-Varsity competitions (IVs) or for those who just want to learn how to speak in a confident and structured manner in public.

Of course, we do more than just sit (or stand) and debate, and we hold various social events through the year. After the Monday night debates, we head off to the Marlborough Arms for a drink or two (or just to socialise). Every year we host a formal dinner in March, namely 'Foundation Dinner and Debate' where we invite MPs to debate the topic "This House Has No Confidence in Her Majesty's Government". Last year we also introduced a Christmas Dinner and plans are to introduce many more exciting and new social activities this year.

We're also proud to host the largest novice IV in Britain, President's Cup held in October. We also host a more general IV in late January. In accordance with our efforts to encourage high schools to enter higher education, we also host a Schools' IV, which allows high school students to take part in a IV-style competition. Plans are also to hold and Intra-London and in-college IVs this year. More information on these can be found on our competitionspage.