QIU students continued to bring in accolades for the university by bagging the Best Speaker award and emerged first runner-up at the recent 6th Malaysian Pharmacy Students Association (MyPSA) National Pharmacy Debate Competition conducted online.
After an excellent campaign through the preliminary rounds and semi-finals, Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) undergraduates Lee Joe Yee, Ooi Wei Jin and Simon Vienoth representing team QUEST 2 put up a top-class showing in the grand finals but were narrowly edged out by the team from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).
The motion debated in the grand finals was ‘This House believes that in times of global health crises, regulatory standards should be relaxed to expedite the approval of vaccines and/or cures’.Team QUEST 2 who spoke for the motion argued some splendid points and made a powerful impression on the judges.
QIU was represented by 2 teams in this competition with undergraduates Chan Yong Li, Gan Shu Ying and Tang Siew Thung making up team QUEST 1.
QIU also had five speakers making the list of Top 10 debaters – the highest of any participating university. In addition to Siew Thung, Gan Shu Ying, Chan Yong Li, Lee Joe Yee and Ooi Wei Jin were also named in the top 10 out of 33 debaters.
This is an excellent performance by the QIU team, as they improved by leaps and bounds compared to when they first participated in this competition in 2018 – where they did not make it past the preliminary rounds.
A total of 11 teams from public and private universities in Malaysia took part in this competition. They were Quest International University Perak (QIU) (2 teams), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), AIMST University (AIMST), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), University of Cyberjaya (UoC) (2 teams), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Universiti Kuala Lumpur Royal College of Medicine Perak (UniKL RCMP), International Medical University (IMU) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
Both the QIU teams performed well throughout the competition. Unfortunately, the luck of the draw saw teams QUEST 1 and QUEST 2 facing each other in the Preliminary round 3 – meaning that only one was able to advance.
This achievement is a testament to the university’s commitment to producing holistic graduates who excel not only in academics but also in competitions.QIU believes that participation in these competitions will help undergraduates sharpen their competitive and leadership skills.
Heartiest congratulations to both the QIU teams and we look forward to more achievements to come. A big thank you also to the QIU Debate Club for helping coach our teams in this competition.
To watch the recorded debate sessions, please visit https://www.facebook.com/officialnpdc2020/
