European Ethics Bowl 2020
European Ethics Bowl 2020 was a pilot project organised by four founding partners of the EEB.
As the whole world was facing the pandemic COVID -19 and there were more than enough ethical dilemmas involved. It was not too difficult to choose the main theme of the 2020 EEB cases.
Institutional competitions
In the first phase of the competition, the preliminary round, each founding partner held a separate competition to select its national winner. The case study was the same for all participants and revolved around COVID-19 tracing apps. The dilemma faced by the participating teams was:
“The European Commission is planning to call for tenders to develop a pan-European tracing app. Should the use of this app be mandatory to use for all European citizens?”
Participating teams had one week to prepare and present their thoughts and opinions on the dilemma at hand in a 3-5 minute video. During the competition they discussed their views with the opposing team and answered any questions asked by the judges.
Semi-final competition
At the semi-finals four teams studied the case that focused on the financial assistance to the companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The dilemma faced by the participating teams was:
“On which ethical considerations should the EU base its allocation of COVID-19 recovery funds to companies and industries across member states?”
The competition format of the semi-finals was the same as the format of the preliminary round. Teams had about a week to prepare and present their views on the given dilemma in a 3-5 minute video. Later they debated with the opposing team during the competition and answer judges questions.
Final competition
On the morning of the final competition the final two teams were presened with a case that focused on a hot topic of allocation & distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. Teams were faced with three dilemma:
- With the vaccine being available very soon, on which ethical consideration should the population get access to the vaccine?
- Discuss whether there should be a compulsory vaccination for all, or a subgroup of the population.
- To what extent should private businesses be allowed to provide their services only to vaccinated people?
In the final round, the teams presented their views directly to the opposing team, the judges and the esteemed guests. And then, after some time to prepare questions for the opposing team, they debated on the topic presented, answered questions from the opposing team and the judges.
I personally believe that ethics is an underestimated topic in higher education. Sometimes, there is a feeling that we educators are forgetting our ultimate responsibility that we are making the future generations to take on as leaders. Students’ competitions, the combats of ideas and opinions shall sharpen their minds and expanded intellectual framework to give some space to ethical viewpoint of the decision making. As a teacher, I have always been honored and very keen to help as a referee at competitions like Bowl. Personally, I am sure that with my active involvement I can contribute to the noble idea of this competition.
Jaka Vadnjal, PhD
EEB Judge in 2020, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
When we think about our EEB experience five words come to mind:
Creativity – EEB empowered us to make artistic choices about how to bring words to life through performance. Our unique arguments were encouraged and thinking outside the box differentiated us from our colleagues.
Persuasion – We were faced with a challenge of convincing an audience in the face of equally well-informed, persuasive competition.
Collaboration – In a world of conflicted ideas, we had to work as a team to craft stories, create arguments, build upon feedback, and perfect our performances.
Adaptability – We had to learn to think on our feet and tailor a performance to a given audience.
Emotional Intelligence – We learned to see both sides of an issue and to use appropriate strategies for questioning things we did not understand.
Meta Štuhec, Gregor Kokal Golčer & Ema Žagar
Winning team of EEB 2020, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia