NUS law student surprises himself by topping international public speaking contest

By his own admission, Mr Kamal Ashraf Kamil Jumat was not “particularly spectacular” at debating throughout his teenage years, even though he enjoyed it, having picked it up when he was ll.

- Rhea Yasmine

Mr Kamal Ashraf Kamil Jumat won the World Universities Public Speaking Invitational Championship 2025 in Macau, despite not being confident about the impromptu speech segment of the competition. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

(ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI)

When the 24-year-old enrolled in the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) law school in 2022, he took a step back from competitive debating and public speaking so he could do more volunteer work.

But after a tutor nominated him to compete in the World Universities Public Speaking Invitational Championship in Macau in August, he took up the gauntlet — and ended up winning the top prize, besting speakers from 10 other universities including Stanford, Oxford and Tsinghua.

“I was quite surprised,” Mr Kamal told The Straits Times. “I was really impressed by the other speeches so I wasn’t expecting the win.”

He wowed the judges with his delivery in all components of the competition — a four-minute prepared speech, a question-and-answer segment, and a two-minute speech he had to deliver on the fly.

But Mr Kamal admitted he was not confident about the impromptu speech. “I couldn’t tell whether it was completely coherent and impactful,” he said.

In the end, what worked for him was relying on his love of language.