The Exeter Union is the only society on campus that provides the opportunity to attend national and international competitions - as well as hosting our own! As a society, we are committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment; with the majority of competitions we enter being available for both novice and professional-level teams. The Exeter Open is an annual, nationally recognised event where both novice and professional teams travel across the country, and sometimes across the world, to compete here in Exeter. As well as this, we host the well-renowned Exeter Wookey Hole Competition, an internal comedy competition held exclusively for members of the society, and are aiming to host an Exeter Womens and Gender Minority (WGM) Competition this Spring.

 

We are also the only society on campus that trains and competes in British Parliamentary debating, the style recognised in Parliament and across the county and the world at a competition-level. Over the years, we have attended many British Parliamentary competitions at universities across the UK, including Imperial College, UCL, LSE, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge. We have an excellent track record, and in the last year alone we have had 14 teams and multiple judges break to the finals. We are the reigning champions of the South-West competition Severn Cup and are hosting the competition again in October 2025. As well as this, we attend the European University Debating Championships every five years, a highly prestigious and competitive event for teams across Europe, and hope to enter again in 2026.