considerable
growing
the growing debate on school reform

fierce, heated, intense, lively, raging, robust, serious, spirited, vigorous
There has been heated debate about whether the movie should be allowed.

acrimonious, bitter, contentious
The club started admitting women in 1901 after years of bitter debate.

rational, reasoned
The nature of this book is to provoke reasoned debate.

honest, open
Honest debate is the foundation of democracy.

continuing, ongoing
the ongoing debate over American foreign policy

age-old, long-running, long-standing
endless
contemporary, current
broader, wider
You cannot separate unemployment from the wider debate about the economy.

public
Television actually encourages public debate about such issues.

national
internal
Efforts to reduce the budget have led to a lot of internal debate at the studio.

philosophical, political, scientific, theological
academic, intellectual, scholarly

have
contribute to
Many leading charities have contributed to the debate on world poverty.

enter, join
He was reluctant to enter the debate for or against war.

encourage, promote
A healthy society promotes vigorous debate.

fuel, generate, ignite, provoke, spark off, spur, start, stimulate, stir, trigger
This accident has sparked off an intense debate on road safety.

reignite, rekindle, renew, reopen
The incident has reignited public debate over the role of teachers.

drive, influence
stifle
He accused the government of trying to stifle debate.

frame, shape
The entire debate is framed in terms of what you can do to protect yourself.

lose, win
The environmentalists seem to have lost the debate over the building of this road.

resolve, settle
dominate
Three major issues have dominated the education debate.

shift
These events shifted debate from economic issues to social ones.

be a matter for, be open to
The benefits of the new law are open to debate.

occur, take place
A debate about safety is taking place in schools everywhere.

rage
arise, erupt
centre/center on sth, focus on sth, revolve around sth
The debate focused on who should pay for the changes.

under debate
The issue is still under debate.

debate about, debate on, debate over
the debate on the environment

debate among
the debate among academics

debate between
debate surrounding
the debate surrounding contemporary art

debate with

the subject of debate
The proposed changes to the law have been the subject of much debate.

brief
lengthy, long
acrimonious, fierce, heated, lively, stormy
a stormy debate in the House of Commons

televised
congressional, legislative, presidential, vice-presidential (in the US)
legislative debates over gay marriage

parliamentary (in the UK)
a parliamentary debate on the fishing industry

policy

have
We had a brief debate about whether or not to accept the offer.

hold, host
The union holds debates for students.

participate in, speak in, take part in
Do you ever speak in debates?

moderate (esp. AmE)
open
The president will open the debate.

close
lose, win
The government lost the debate in the House of Commons.
The poll showed that the Democrat won last night's presidential debate.

moderator (AmE)
coach, team (both AmE)
performance (esp. AmE)
Experts pore over the President's debate performances.

during a/the debate, in a/the debate
debate about, debate on, debate over
Many of these points were raised during the debate on prison reform.