Finals Day

88 of the best teams from regional rounds and affiliated competitions will qualify for Finals Day.
Schools qualifying for Finals Day from their regional rounds will receive more information by email, and should preregister here before 5pm Friday the 26th of February.

Finals' Day will be hosted at the Oxford Union on St. Michael's street on March 13th. A map can be found here.

The schedule for the event will be as follows:
Registration:                           08:45 – 09:20
Breakfast:                               09:00 – 09:30
Round 1 announced:              09:35
Short break:                            11:40 – 12:00
Round 2 announced:              12:00
Lunch (not provided):            13:45 – 14:20
Round 3 announced:              14:20
Short break:                            16:10 – 16:30
Round 4 announced:              16:30
Dinner (provided):                 18:00 – 18:50
Final announced:                    18:50
Presentation ceremony:          20:55-21:05

Please ensure that you arrive in plenty of time for the registration, as we will cut teams who run late.

We strongly recommend using public transport to get to the Union in Oxford, as parking and driving in central Oxford is confusing and difficult, with plenty of pedestrianised streets and closed roads. The nearest large car park is on the intersection of Worcester St. and Hythe Bridge St.

Dinner and breakfast will be provided, and a short break for lunch between the 2nd and 3rd rounds (there are many good, fast places to eat around Cornmarket Street). Parents, teachers and hangers-on are welcome and will be catered for, just let us know how many you intend to bring on the preregistration form.


There is no dress code, but many of the students will dress smartly. Some will choose to wear school uniform or a suit, although 
wearing jeans and a shirt is also suitable.

There will be 4 rounds of debating for all teams. Speeches will be 5 minutes in length, except in the Grand Final where they will be 7 minutes in length. The rules of the debates are the same as in the regional rounds. Motions will be announced 15 minutes before the rounds begin, teams will prepare alone. There is no pre-prepared motion. Results and oral adjudication will be given after the first three rounds, however no result or feedback will be given after the 4th round. After the four rounds, the top 4 teams will compete in the Grand Final in the chamber. 

The chief adjudicators, Shengwu Li and Max Kasriel, are two of the best debaters in the world at the moment (indeed Shengwu was awarded the title of Best Speaker at the last World Championships). Between them they've won or been finalists at practically every competition there is, and are a very able judging team. In addition we have a large pool of the top debaters in the world as judges, to help ensure that we get a higher standard of judging here than anywhere else.

We are able to offer a limited number of means tested travel bursaries in order to contribute towards the cost of travel for schools to Finals' Day. Preference will be given to those who have already been awarded a registration fee bursary. For further information, please email Tom. The deadline for requesting a bursary is 5pm Friday 26th February 2010.

The Oxford Union cannot take responsibility for any student. We also cannot fill out risk assessments for any school - this would jeopardise our own insurance policies. It is the responsibility of the school to ensure any appropriate paperwork for the trip is completed and any appropriate legislation and guidelines are adhered to.