A two member team from The University of the West Indies, Mona will compete with 400 teams from approximately 200 institutions across 80 countries at the 33rd World Universities Debating Championships popularly known as “Worlds”. The Competition takes place from December 27, 2012 to January 4, 2013 in Berlin, Germany.  The UWI, Mona team is represented by Mikhail Williams, a final year Law student and president of the UWI, Mona Debating Society and Jarred Brewster, fourth year Medical Sciences student. Roger Bent, coach and Worlds adjudicator will accompany the students. 
 
Mikhail will be participating in his second Worlds having represented the institution in Manila last year while Jarred will have his third encounter in this year’s competition having participated in 2010 and 2011 in Botswana and Manila respectively. 
 
Mona has been participating consistently in “Worlds” since 1997 and at the last analysis was in the top 60 out of the two hundred universities that had taken part in the Championships over the previous five years. The University of the West Indies, Mona student Krystal Tomlinson copped the top prize in the Public Speaking Competition of the World Universities Debating Championships held in Botswana in 2010. 
 
The competition is the largest debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events in the world. More than 200 universities from Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Australasia, the Islands of the North Atlantic, the Americas and the Caribbean take part in the "Olympics" of debating each year. Oxford University in Britain, University of Dublin in Ireland, University of British Columbia in Canada, Yale in the USA, Cape Town University in South Africa are among the top universities participating in the World Universities Debating Championships.
 
The tournament uses the British Parliamentary style and format of debating. Each debate round comprises four teams, two Government (for) and two in Opposition (against) with two debaters in each team.