The inaugural inter-varsity debate on a topic of high public interest – nuclear energy – was successfully organised in Malaysia on 12-13 April 2017. Centred on the theme “Nuclear for Peace”, the debate competition was designed to encourage self-study and constructive dialogue among undergraduates from various science to even non-science disciplines on nuclear-related issues.
The event, hosted at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), drew 12 teams from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and Universiti Malaya (UM). Interestingly, the teams who made it to the final round with the motion “Nuclear energy should be one of the Agenda in the National Transformation 2050 (TN50)”, namely UM and UKM, are not nuclear-related students. The UM team who emerged champion, is made up of undergraduates currently pursuing statistics, medicine and economics, whereas all three members of the team from UKM are studying law.
This debate is organised by the Malaysian Nuclear Society with cooperation from the Malaysia Young Generation in Nuclear (MyYGN), and supported by Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation and Malaysian Nuclear Agency. The members of MyYGN also served as jurors for this inter-varsity debate competition which covered motions on various aspects of nuclear science and technology including nuclear power.
