Rules

students working on a project


ELIGIBILITY & TEAM COMPOSITION

  • Full-time and part-time students completing an undergraduate degree program, Masters or PhD, who are registered at participating partner universities may compete in the World's Challenge Challenge.
  • Teams must be composed of two to four students, preferably from at least two different disciplines. Applications from teams with more or less participants will not be accepted. 
  • Only students from the same institution will be accepted on a team. Cross-institutional representation is not allowed.
  • Teams may not include non-student participants.

*Please note that if you were a student when you competed in your institution's internal competition, you are still eligible to compete in the Global Final. 

student presenting at podium

PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS

For Western's internal competition, as well as for the Global Final, each team will be asked to submit one 3-minute video pitch for a semi-final round. Videos must be in MP4 format. Teams selected to advance to the final competitions will be asked to present their 7-minute pitch and participated in a 3-minute Q&A session in person.

In both pitches, teams should speak about the challenge you wish to address, using a PowerPoint presentation for visual support. Presentations should reflect the concepts and principles being discussed through visuals and a limited amount of text. Video and other multimedia files and links are allowed within the presentations, within the given time allotted.

Please include all references you used for your presentation in the final slide. You do not need to present these.

The first pitch should be a 3-minute presentation that explains your overall idea and the solution your team is addressing (this will be used for the semi-finals).

The second pitch should be 5-7 minutes and will be in person. This is where you will go into further details about implementation, budget, etc. Teams in the finals will also participate in a live Q&A session with judges. 

Please note that video pitches should be presented just as they would be if they were in person (i.e. not overly edited and produced, just team members all participating in an online session via Zoom or similar, that is recorded). Read tips for recordings here. 

When preparing for your presentation, please consider the following requirements:

Global Issue

Clearly identify the global issue that your team is addressing. We encourage student teams to consider solutions to any identified global issue or challenge.

Reflection

Reflect upon the role that your own country or Western countries may have in the existence and/or perpetuation of the global issue.

Reflect upon the role that you, as individuals and local communities, in the existence and/or perpetuation of the global issue.

Idea

Present an idea to help address the global issue, using logical and convincing arguments, and including the way local and global communities can collaborate to develop joint solutions.

Implementation Plan

Solutions should include realistic plans for implementation, with consideration for budget, logistics and leadership/collaboration with local partners.

Supporting Evidence

Provide as many statistics and supporting research as possible to both the World’s Challenge and your solution.

Scoring Rubric

* On September 25, 2015 at the UN, 193 world leaders adopted the Global Goals, a series of 17 ambitious goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change for everyone by 2030.