Ülikooli väitlusklubide võimestamine

<< Background >>The university project between Latvia, Estonia, and Denmark had a twofold objective: to reawaken debates after Covid while simultaneously addressing the lack of materials for university-level community leaders actively developing attitudes of active citizenship. Critical thinking and analytical skills are necessary to fight the rise of anti-democratic and populist values in Europe. University debate clubs serve as a platform for informal education by giving students more means to engage with new ideas and express their own opinions. The principal need for this project was ensuring the stability of these organisations, especially in a post-Covid society, and combat issues such as constant turnover of educators and lack of strong organisational practices.By applying for an Erasmus+ project, these skills could be further explored on an international level, thus including topics of EU citizenship and strengthening connections between people from different parts of the EU. The project aimed to empower university students with knowledge and resources to engage their communities in meaningful dialogues and actions, promoting democratic values and a sense of belonging in the post-pandemic landscape. << Objectives >>The main objective of the project was to revive and strengthen debate clubs after the Covid pandemic, which saw a decrease in the number of participants and general stability of university-level debate organisations. This is vital in order for students to continue to have access to debating and be able to engage democratically with local, national and international communities. To ensure reaching this goal, the project aimed to create high quality content for university debate clubs to be able to function on their own and not be as heavily impacted by the challenges volunteer-based university organisations face. In addition, the project aimed to provide a platform where various debate clubs can meet, plan common future activities, network and participate in experience exchange lessons. Co-operation between similar organisations in one region is a way to find more effective and long-standing solutions to problems faced by these communities.<< Implementation >>The project consisted of three key activities. The learning, teaching and training activities included three national academies (one in each participating country) as well as one international academy, which included participants from all the organisations who worked on the project. The purpose of these events was to equip debate educators with further knowledge on topics relevant to them, in order to help them better prepare for all parts of their work and be able to grant more support to students taking part in univeristy-level debate clubs. Moreover, the academies were a forum for engaging with other communities in the region and develop relationships for future co-operation – another key aspect in improving the stability of university debating.Secondly, the project included the creation of materials that debate educators in university debate clubs can use to ensure they are not faced with as high of an individual burden. In order to reach this goal, we held and recorded workshops, which can be used in the future as tools to strengthen students' argumentation and knowledge in key areas. Moreover, these events were held in a hybrid form, meaning students could already actively participate in improving their skills. Thirdly, the project included the creation of a manual for university debate club leaders. This document includes knowledge and experiences from different communities from the region in order to provide a comprehensive overview of how to make work more effective in a student organisation.<< Results >>The project has two concrete outputs. Firstly, a series of 12 debating workshops which are freely accessible online and can be used by future generations of debate educators both on the university level and on other steps of the education system. Secondly, a 167-page manual that details different parts of leading a university debate club was created, which features input from all partner organisations.