QDU is dedicated to ensuring all students can safely engage in debating whilst developing and growing their skills. For this reason up-to-date policies and procedures regarding the operation of the QDU can be found here. If you have any questions regarding any of these policies or procedures, please contact the QDU via the contact form.

QDU’s rules and regulations can be found in the rulebook which will advise on the most up to date rules, breeches and guidelines for debating in QLD.

For all enquiries regarding specific school teams, please direct your questions to your school’s debating coordinator.

Please direct all messages and updates regarding your child specifically to your team coach or debating coordinator.

No, taking any photos or recordings of the debate is strictly prohibited. Breaking this rule may result in your team forfeiting the debate under the discretion of the QDU Schools Vice-President.

Dates for each round release at the beginning of the school year. These will be sent to your school’s coordinator and can also be found on our calendar. The opponent, time, and venue for all debates can be determined by checking your team's draw. This can be done via the CMS (Competition Management System). Please note that the QDU has adopted a rolling draw from 2024 onwards. This means that only one future rounds’ draw will be available at any given time. The draw for the subsequent round will usually be released within a week of the previous round.

The topics for the first-round release at the beginning of the school year and are distributed to your schools’ coordinator. The topics for the subsequent rounds release at the same time as the draw and can be viewed in the CMS. For short preparation rounds, the topic will show as short prep.

A short prep topic denotes a short preparation round. In a short preparation round, teams are given the topic one hour before the debate commences. Teams must then create a case and write speeches without the aid of technology or coaches.

Upcoming events and workshops can be found on the events page. Events and workshops are also advertised through the QDU’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

A rolling draw means that your opponent in each round is determined by your results in your previous round/s. This means that in most rounds you will oppose a team with a similar number of wins as your team. This will result in the team match ups being fairer and more enjoyable for the participating students. This means that your opponent for each round will be released after all the results from the previous round are collected. This should take about one week to account for postponements and adjudicators to confirm results, giving you plenty of notice of your side for the next round.

The venue can be determined by checking your team's draw. This can be done via the CMS (Competition Management System).

A full list of venues can be found on the venues page. Here you should find specific details regarding parking, classroom locations, and helpful hints.

Resources to learn more about debating and improve your skills can be found on our training website. Ask your school coordinator about how to sign up or watch our video explaining how to sign up.

QDU Academy is a series of zoom sessions on Tuesday afternoons giving an introduction to how to think about your next topic. They are usually two weeks before long prep debates, but for specific timings ask your school coordinator as they will be emailed the dates at the start of the season. All QDU Academy sessions use the same link, which can be found here.

QDU on demand is a program run by the QDU to go into schools and help with training students and coaches at debating. To make a booking to have a QDU on demand session at your school, fill out the form here. We will then get back to you to confirm details.

The QDU executives are impassioned members of the debating community who volunteer their time to run the QDU. The 2024 executives are: President - Hoyeon Shim Secretary - Meg Dunstan Treasurer - Paddy Harten Schools VP - Reily Chapman Adjudicators VP - Luke Ames Welfare VP - Bec Stegman Training VP - Harry Rae Outreach VP - Thomas Nunn-Rutledge Communications VP - Rowan Gray

We are all available to contact through our email addresses. Please keep in mind that we are a volunteer run organisation, so please be patient with response times. If you require a more immediate response, please complete the Contact Us form to get in contact with Tony, our paid program manager. President - president@qdu.org.au Secretary - secretary@qdu.org.au Treasurer - treasurer@qdu.org.au Schools VP - schools@qdu.org.au Adjudicators VP - adjudicators@qdu.org.au Welfare VP - welfare@qdu.org.au Training VP - training@qdu.org.au Outreach VP - outreach@qdu.org.au Communications VP - communications@qdu.org.au

The best way to contact the QDU for urgent inquiries is through the contact form. You may also directly contact any of the executives, however since we are a volunteer run organisation, please be patient with the response times.

QDU’s main priority is the safety and wellbeing of our students. If you have concerns regarding a child's safety or wellbeing or a potential threat to this, please contact Tony, our program manager, through admin@qdu.org.au and Bec, our VP of Welfare, though welfare@qdu.org.au. If you would like to remain anonymous, please complete the contact form and follow the prompts to identify it as a child safety concern.

We are always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you would like to leave some feedback, please complete the QDU Feedback Form.

We highly value adjudicator feedback, especially positive feedback. If you would like to leave an adjudicator some feedback, please do so through our feedback form. This feedback will be used to continue the development of our adjudicators to best support our debating community.

In extreme scenarios, where you feel that overt bias has been displayed or that the decision is deemed to be manifestly unfair, you may appeal the decision of the adjudicator. Note: overturning the decision of the adjudicator is incredibly rare, and repeated appeals without merit may result in teams losing their ability to appeal as outlined in the QDU rules Appeals that outline a bias by an adjudicator or a rule violation which affected the outcome of a debate must be lodged via email to the QDU Program Manager, Tony, at admin@qdu.org.au, who will then distribute the appeal to the relevant party, most often the Adjudicators VP. Appeals made via the QDU Feedback Form will not be eligible for a consideration of annulment by the Adjudicators VP, and must be lodged first with the QDU administrator.

There are two steps to becoming an adjudicator: Complete the ‘Request to become an adjudicator form here: https://cms1.qdu.org.au/qducms/welcome/ Create an account at on the QDU Training platform: https://qdu.talentlms.com/ Email adjudicators@qdu.org.au outlining your previous debating/adjudicating experience & you will be provided a course code Complete the course & you’re ready to go!