After winning championships in the Mandarin category, Cantonese category, and English category of an inter-varsity debate competition in Macao, the University of Macau (UM) recently won the championship of the Tenth Portuguese Debate Competition for Higher Education Institutions in China and Asia. This is the first time that UM’s Portuguese Debating Team has won a championship at this competition.

Co-organised by Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM) and the Higher Education Bureau, this year’s competition attracted 12 teams from Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Tianjin Foreign Studies University, Nankai University, Zhejiang International Studies University, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, the South China Business College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Hanoi University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, UM, Macao Polytechnic Institute, and Macau University of Science and Technology.

The UM team was comprised of three fourth-year students of the Department of Portuguese, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, namely Tang Jiaxuan, Zhao Zeyang, and Liu Gaole. Liu also won the Best Debater Award at the preliminaries. Peking University and IPM placed second and third, respectively.