Dear students of “Danubius” University, are you up for a challenge?

We know you are all special, intelligent youngsters, with strong personalities. We hereby offer you a new setting for you to express, affirm and confirm your discursive abilities. A setting in which your opinions are more valuable than your teachers’. We have the pleasure to announce the opening of “Danubius” Debate Club, the Danubian club for academic debates, where teams will fight in the World of ideas and argumentation on important topics nowadays, under the following tagline: “Cogito, ergo sum”.

This initiative is consistent with the mission and the values promoted by the Danubian community, both institutionally and by the four faculties: innovation, excellence, respect, open, truth, entrepreneurial, efficient communication, competiveness. At the same time, the initiative takes into consideration the fact that your majors include lectures like “The art of debate and argumentation”, “Critical thinking”, “Ethics“, “The spokesperson’s institution” or “The international protection of human rights”. 

Why would you take part in an academic debate?

• It develops your communication abilities;
• It helps you gather information and adds up to your trivia;
• It stimulates critical thinking;
• Increases your chances at getting a better job;
• The adrenalin of reasoned and time-measured speech during matches helps you overcome the emotional barriers inherent to public speaking, speaking up one’s mind and to the anxiety of being rejected because of having different opinions than others etc..
• Enhances your team spirit and your creativity.

The first match within “Danubius” Debate Club will take place online, on the Danubius platform, Tuesday 16 of March, at 2 PM. For starters, two teams of students from the Faculty of Communication and International Relations will get into debate.

Organization and deployment:

There will be four-student teams.

• They will sign up to argue for or against a topic (motion) and will subsequently team up.
• One team will be confirmatory (for) and the other one – negative (against).
• There will be two captains – conclusive members (they will also have the final word).
• The members of the teams will talk in turns, consecutively. First, the opponents’ claim will be negated and then the personal claim will be shared.
• The motions (debate topics) will be announced at least two weeks before every match.
• The debates will be juried by referees (University faculty).
• They will give the following points: 1 or 0,5 points for a claim and 1 or 0,5 points for negating the opponent’s claim.
• To gain the points, each debater will have to abide by the criteria of clarity, pertinence, time and to avoid personal attack – the confrontation will be centered on claims.
• Matches will take one hour each.
• Talking time will be of maximum 3 minutes/ person; conclusive speech – maximum 5 minutes.
• Time for thought – maximum 3 minutes
• Both teams will be rewarded!

For the first debate within “Danubius” Debate Club we put forward the following motion (topic): “Anti-Covid 19 Vaccination”.

Senior Lecturer Petra Alina Marinescu, Ph.D., project initiator and referee of the first match awaits for your registration to argue for or against the given topic, until Monday 8 of March, at the e-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at the following telephone number: 0740 303 810.

Subsequently, the teams will be announced in order for the students to get into contact and prepare the debate strategy.

All of you who want to virtually witness are welcome. We encourage the supporters of the two teams to sign up. Pay attention to the fact that places are limited!

Best of luck in tackling the claims!