PETALING JAYA : The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) debate team has won the Cambridge University Intervarsity debating championship (Cambridge IV).

On Sunday morning, IIUM emerged champions in the finals against the UK's Oxford University, Canada's Toronto University and fellow Malaysian team, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).

During the finals, the teams debated the motion: "This house prefers a world in which Islam is structured around a strong, central governing authority (eg. The Pope in Catholicism)."

IIUM's team consists of Economics students Mubarrat Wassey, 25, and law student Ameera Natasha Moore, 23.

While Ameera is Malaysian, Mubarrat is an international student from Bangladesh but debates for Malaysia under the IIUM university banner.

Mubarrat brings home another accolade by emerging as the overall best speaker of the tournament.

This is the second time a Malaysian team has won the tournament. The UiTM team, law students Mohd Mifzal Mohd Murshid Kieron and Jasmine Abdullah, both 23, were last year's champions.

Cambridge IV, which ran from Nov 18-19, is hosted by the UK's Cambridge University and is one of the most competitive tournaments in the world.

It saw five preliminary rounds and two knock-outs where more than 100 teams took part from across the globe.

Among the participants include Harvard University, the London School of Economics (LSE), Yale University, Tel Aviv University, King's College London and Durham University.

The tournament ran in the British Parliamentary format, which pitches fours teams of two against one another in every round.

The motions debated range in topic from law, economics, international trade, religion, foreign policy, human rights and other varied areas of discussion.

Teams were only given 15 minutes to prepare after motions are revealed, and are not allowed to receive outside assistance or access to electronic aid.

It's been a great debating year for IIUM, having won three of the biggest regional competitions: The Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship (Australs), the United Asian Debating Championship (UADC) and the Asian British Parliamentary (ABP) Debating Championship.

IIUM is now setting its sights on the No.1 competition in December, the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) which will be held in the Netherlands.