UTech, Ja Student Handbook 2019-2020

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E C H N O L O G Y , J A M A I C A – S T U D E N T H A N D B O O K 2 0 1 9 – 2 0 2 0 148 Among the other motions debated were “This house believes that Western countries should revoke the citizenship of individuals that trav- elled to the Middle East to join jihadi groups, even if they were minors at the time of their departure”, “This house believes that the gen- eral educational approach in schools should be to discourage children from assessing their achievements in comparison to their peers” and “This house believes that major awards of meri- tocratic distinction should include a moral clause: a provision that allows the honouree to receive or hold the award only in the case they meet a behavioural standard set by the award- ing panel”. The motions for all rounds up to the English semi-finals and the Spanish quarter- finals were the same. The motion for the English semi-finals was: “In countries with proportional representation, this house supports founding political parties that exclusively represent women’s interests”. Debates were conducted according to the British Parliamentary style in which four teams debate one another, two from the government bench, and two from the opposition bench. The first half of the debate takes place between members of the “upper house” comprising a prime minister and deputy prime minister on the government side, and a leader of the oppo- sition and deputy leader of the opposition on the opposition side. The second half of the debate takes place between a government member and an opposition member, while a government whip and an opposition whip close out the debate on either side. For the second time since participating in inter- national debating competitions, the UTech. Ja. team broke into the semi-finals, with its A Team ending as the third best team in the English Division of the competition. Of the 40 debaters in the English Division, Charles Frost ranked 6th best debater and his team member Roshelle Pinnock ranked 10th best debater. S T U D E N T L I F E