A plea about freedom was awarded top prize in the grand finale of the UIC Barcelona public speaking and debate contest. Student Ferran Cladellas was the person who, with his on-stage rhetoric, edged out the rest of his classmates, who defended their diverse array of personal viewpoints before the jury on 1 May.

Along with Cladellas, students from the Faculty of Humanities, Law and Economic and Social Sciences managed to still their nerves and demonstrate their oratory skills on the stage in the Aula Magna. They did so before their classmates and the jury, made up of Dr Maria Mut, professor of International and European Law, and Dr Ricardo Jiménez-Yañez, a lecturer in the faculties of Humanities and Law, who evaluated the rhetorical devices and stage presence of each participant.

Second prize went to Juan Ferrer for his speech “Music and Philosophy”, while the third and final prize-winner was Carmen Moreno, whose intervention was entitled “Cultural Genocide”.

“The amazing quality of the speeches made the final decision extremely difficult”, explained Faculty of Humanities lecturer and event host Lucía Pérez. A final decision that assessed such diverse issues as the weather, bullying, the Spanish education stem, change, the impact of media and money management.