A team of Business Administration students from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has won the fifth Qatar Universities National Debate Championship.Dana al-Ansari and Patrick Steinhagen were the members of the winning team. In all, four teams from CMUQ competed.John G Robertson, assistant dean for academic affairs at CMUQ, and Abdellatif Sellami, educational programmes manager, QatarDebate, were on hand to congratulate the winners.The event, referred to commonly as ‘Nationals’, is the culmination of the universities’ debating year, during which Steinhagen and al-Ansari finished as best and second speaker, respectively. CMUQ freshman Mohammed Benkermi was presented with the award for best novice speaker during the Qatar Universities Debate League.Ilker Baybars, dean, CMUQ, lauded the debaters. “Our students’ performance is a true testament to Carnegie Mellon’s mission to develop students who are able to logically reason and quickly dissect complex issues –not only in the confines of our university, but in their professional and extracurricular lives as well.”Narcis Jafarian, a sophomore studying business administration, rounded out CMUQ’s accolades over the weekend finishing as the 10th best overall speaker.Ian Lacey, debate coach and associate teaching professor of information systems, said competitive debating teaches students to analyse an issue, develop arguments and to speak confidently - skills that are beneficial in university as well as the work place. “In our debating format, the motion is only announced 15 or 20 minutes before the debate, so case analysis must be done not only thoroughly, but also quickly. “Above all, debating teaches the important principle of challenging the ideas being presented and not the person who presents them. “These concepts - respect of the individual, while engaging in robust discussion of the merits of their ideas will be a valuable skill for Qatar as she transforms into knowledge-based economy.” In all, 20 teams debated from CMUQ, College of the North Atlantic - Qatar, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Qatar University, Texas A&M University at Qatar and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.