Question:easy

Given below is a statement followed by two arguments. Read carefully and decide which of the arguments strongly support the statement.

Statement: Should students' union in colleges and universities be abolished?

Arguments:
(i) Yes, it detracts students from academic and career development.
(ii) No, all great leaders have been students' union leaders.

Show Hint

Test the word all in the second argument. If you can name one great leader who never led a students' union, that argument is finished.
Updated On: Jul 17, 2026
  • Argument (i) is strong.
  • Argument (ii) is strong.
  • Both (i) and (ii) are strong.
  • Neither (i) nor (ii) is strong.
Show Solution

The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

The debate is whether students' unions in colleges and universities should be scrapped. To rate the arguments, ask whether each one gives a reason that is true and that bears on the proposal. Sweeping words like all are always worth a second look, because one counter example is enough to sink such a claim.

  1. Argument (i), Yes, it detracts students from academic and career development: Running a union means campaigning, contesting elections, holding meetings and organising agitations, and every hour of it comes out of study time. Campus politics also brings strikes and disruption that cost teaching days. A student is in college mainly to learn, so an argument that the union works against that aim goes to the point and rests on a real effect. Strong.
  2. Argument (ii), No, all great leaders have been students' union leaders: The claim is simply not true. Plenty of great leaders never held a students' union post, and one such name is enough to break a claim built on all. Even if some union leaders did rise later, that tells us nothing about whether unions help the ordinary student or whether they should stay. False on facts and off the point, so weak.

Only the first argument holds, which makes option (A) correct.

Let us summarize:

  • Argument (i) names a real cost of union activity, that is time and teaching days lost from the student's main purpose.
  • Argument (ii) uses a sweeping all claim that is factually wrong and that anyway does not address the proposal.
  • Options (B) and (C) rely on that faulty claim, and (D) throws away a sound argument.

So the answer is Argument (i) is strong.

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