Open Communication wins rights to host WSDC 2024 in Belgrade

The World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) are yearly global debate competitions for secondary-level students taking place since 1988. At this world cup for Schools debate with over 70 nations in attendance today, each nation sends a single team to progress through eight preliminary rounds and, provided they secure at least five wins, try to progress from partial-double octo-finals, octo-finals, quarter-finals, and semi-finals to the Grand Final. After the Croatian Debate Society and Za in Proti (Slovenia) in 2018 and IDEA in 2022, another member of our international debate network won the community vote to host WSDC. 

Open Communication is an academic debate network founded at the University of Belgrade in 1997. Dedicated to encouraging open dialogue and critical thinking, the organisation has so far run educational programmes for over 1500 university and high school students. Achieving impressive results at university tournaments, including world champion titles in the EFL (English as a foreign language) and ESL (English as a second language) categories at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) and the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC), the organisation is now making a significant step into increasing the visibility of schools debate in Serbia by hosting this prestigious global event. Based on the excellent organisational skills Open Communication demonstrated when organising EUDC in 2018 and WUDC online in 2022, we have no doubt that WSDC 2024 will be a success and a fantastic time for over 600 expected participants. 

For more information about the event, please keep an eye on the organisation and the event Facebook page.