uk law essay competition 2023

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ILBF law student essay competition rules 2023-2024

Essay title:

‘Should the right to protest be unfettered?’

Competition rules and how to submit your entry

1. The ILBF law student essay competition 2023-2024 is open to all undergraduates studying law at an institution in the UK.

2. The word count for the essay is 1000 words. The word count does not include the essay title or any footnotes. Footnotes should be set out at the end of the essay and should not be excessive and a bibliography is not required; footnotes should be restricted to references and should not include substantive material that should have been in the body of the essay. Any essays over 1,000 words will be automatically rejected. Essays should be your own work without the use of AI.

3. Referencing should be in the style of OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities). Follow this  link  to the OSCOLA quick reference guide.

4. Essays should be submitted as a Word Document and emailed to  [email protected]  from your university email account, not from your personal email account.

5. The subject line of the email should be surname, first name and university ID (from your student card).

6. Please insert your surname, first name and year of undergraduate study at the top of the essay. Eg, [Surname], [first name], 1st year undergraduate

7. Once you submit your essay, you will receive an automatic reply to indicate that the essay has been received.

8. Any queries about the essay competition can be sent to [email protected] before you submit your essay.

9. The deadline for submission of entries is 4pm on Thursday, 29th February 2024. Judging will take place during March 2024 and the judges’ decision will be final.

10. The winner will be announced on Thursday, 4 th April 2024 at 4pm.

Best of luck!

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Law Reform Essay Competition 2023 Opens

The Bar Council has opened its 2023  Law Reform Essay Competition . It is open to all current and future Pupils, Law students, students undertaking Law conversion courses such as the Graduate Diploma in Law, Bar Course students and all prospective Pupils who have completed their vocational Bar studies and are actively seeking pupillage.

Essays are to be up to 3,000 words, on a topic of a proposed law reform to English, Welsh or European Law, which would be desirable, practical and useful. The prize money for the winning entry is £4,000.

The closing date is Monday 23 October at 17:00.

25 Canada Square Chambers wishes all prospective entrants the best of luck.

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Current Law Students

Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics essay competition 2023

To All Students,

We are delighted to invite students from all UK universities to take part in the Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics essay competition 2023. Entries from all graduate and undergraduate students (full and part-time) are welcomed, in the form of an essay of up to 2000 words on any topic relevant to  practical ethics .

Whilst all students are encouraged to take part, this will be particularly relevant to those studying philosophy, medicine and biological sciences, law, AI and data sciences.

The winner from each category will receive a prize of £500, and the runner up £200. Revised versions of the two winning essays will be considered for publication in the  Journal of Practical Ethics .

To enter, please submit essays by the end of Tuesday 7 th  February 2023 to  [email protected] . Finalists will be notified by Tuesday 21 st  February of selection. For more details about the Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics see the competition  webpage .

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• Human rights

Graham Turnbull essay competition to be held in 2023 and organised by Memorial Fund

The Graham Turnbull essay competition  encourages law students and junior lawyers to examine current pressing human rights issues and to consider their impact on the wider system of human rights and law.

Held in memory of Graham Turnbull, a human rights lawyer killed in 1997 while working as a United Nations human rights monitor, the winner is awarded £500 at an annual lecture.

Since its inception, the competition was administered by the Law Society in partnership with the Graham Turnbull Memorial Fund.

From now, it will be organised by the Graham Turnbull Memorial Fund independently.

While we're sorry to no longer be hosting the competition and lecture, we are glad that its legacy – and that of Graham Turnbull – will continue.

Dates for the 2023 competition will be released soon.

We will keep members updated through our social media channels.

For more information, email  Tony Fisher . 

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• Junior Solicitors Network

• Essay Competition Launch

Posted by The Law School

Open to all Law Students

Competition launched 29 november 6pm, entries due 29 february 2024.

• Opportunities

Law Essay Competitions

From learnmore.

• 1.1 The Andrew Lockley Public Law Essay Competition
• 1.2 vLex International Law & Technology Writing Competition
• 1.3 Golding Essay Prize
• 1.4 Times Law Awards
• 1.5 The Graham Turnbull Memorial International Human Rights Essay Competition
• 1.6 Bar Council Law Reform Essay
• 1.7 JLD Essay Competition
• 1.8 UKELA Andrew Lees Prize
• 1.9 ARDL Marion Simmons QC Essay Competition
• 1.10 FIDE Essay Prize
• 1.11 Future Legal Mind Award
• 1.12 Property Bar Association Essay Competition
• 1.13 SCL Student Essay Prize
• 1.14 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law
• 1.15 UK Centre for Animal Law Essay Competition
• 1.16 The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law Essay Competition
• 1.17 Littleton Chambers Sports Law Essay Competition
• 1.18 Human Rights Essay Award
• 1.19 FSLA Essay Competition
• 1.20 ITSA Essay Competition

Feeling like a winner?

There are lots of opportunities to try out your writing expertise throughout the year...sometimes for money (oh and prestige and worldwide fame of course...).

The Andrew Lockley Public Law Essay Competition

Irwin Mitchell run this competition for aspiring public law and human rights solicitors and it is a fantastic opportunity to get your name out there, win a £250 Blackwell's gift card and to develop your legal writing skills.

It is open to law students, graduates, paralegals and trainee solicitors.

Entrants are asked to submit an essay of no more than 1500 words on the following topic:

What key factors should the courts consider and give most weight to when balancing the rights to freedom of expression and assembly of protestors with disruption to other members of the public?

Deadline is: 31st October 2023. Find full details of the competition, including the rules via the Irwin Mitchell website .

vLex International Law & Technology Writing Competition

This annual competition (it has been running since 2018) centres around three new themes each year. For 2024 these are:

• Immigration
• Large language models
• Industrial action

As in previous years, the winner receives a whopping £1500, with additional prizes for runners-up.

Have a look at the vLex Writing Competition page to see the rules, Ts &Cs and the work of winners from the previous competitions . You can also get inspiration on the set themes.

Max number of words is 1000. Deadline is 1st December 2023.

Golding Essay Prize

The Competition Law Association runs an annual competition for any student, trainee solicitor, pupil barrister or trainee patent and trade mark attorney. First prize is £1000.

The 2024 Essay Prize title asked for entrants to address the following title:

As the importance of renewable energy increases, will patents continue to play a central role in protecting those rights or will renewable companies rely on trade secrets and confidential information only?

Look at the competition website for inspiration from previous winning essays. The rules and background for this year's competition can be accessed via the CLA website .

Times Law Awards

The biggest of these law essay competition is The Times Law Award. Last year's competition deadline was mid-Jan and prizes were substantial, with £3,500 for the winner and £2,500 and £1,500 for second and third place. Not bad for a 1000 word essay on a given topic!

Last year's title was:

Should states and private parties be entitled to recover reparations from aggressor states, and if so, how??

You can see the prize-winning essays (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 3 runners-up going all the way back to 1995) on the One Essex Court/Times Law Award website .

We'll update this as soon as this year's competition is announced.

We're very proud of the incredible number of City students and alumni who have performed so well in this competition over the years. We have seen the following successes from them:

GDL student Charlie Colenutt was runner-up in 2020 * BPTC student William Beddows was runner-up in 2019 * BPTC student Katie Ratcliffe (3rd) in 2018 * GDL student Genevieve Woods (1st) in 2017 * Joshua Brown (1st) and Gavin Dingley (2nd) in 2016 * BPTC students George White (1st) and Lara Hassell (3rd) (Lara completed the GDL at City in the previous year) and BPTC alumnus James Beeton (2nd) in 2014 * GDL students Andrew Lomas (1st) and Lara Hassell (2nd) in 2013 * GDL and BPTC alumni James Potts (1st) and GDL student Thomas Coates (2nd) in 2012 * GDL student Anthony Pavlovich (1st) in 2011 * GDL student Anita Davies (1st) in 2010. Anita's winning essay was described by Jack Straw as "an engaging, erudite piece of prose" * GDL student Amy Rogers (1st) in 2006 * GDL student Sarah Love (joint 1st) in 2005 * BVC student James Brilliant (1st) in 2004 * GDL student Mathew Guillick (1st) in 2002 *

The Graham Turnbull Memorial International Human Rights Essay Competition

An annual competition named after Graham Turnbull, an English solicitor who did much to promote respect for human rights. Graham was killed in 1997, working as a human rights monitor on the United Nations Human Rights Mission in Rwanda.

Until 2023, the competition was administered by the Law Society but is now managed by the Graham Turnbull Memorial Fund independently.

The competition is open to law students, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers and all solicitors/barristers within 3 years of admission/call. It asked for essays of no more than 2000 words in length and awards the winner of this prestigious award, £500. The title for the 2023 competition is:

What are the human rights implications of the failure of a state to take action to prevent global temperature rises which threaten the health or lives of their citizens?

Previous winners include Niall Coghlan (2013 competition) and Nick Jones (2019 competition), who were both on the GDL programme at City. You can read the winning entries all the way back to 2010 on the Law Society page for inspiration in the meantime...

Entries should be sent to [email protected] prior to the deadline - 5pm on the 20th October 2023. I've put the full rules on the Lawbore blog for you.

Bar Council Law Reform Essay

Sponsored by the Bar Council Scholarship Trust, this competition is open to students and pupils and requires entrants to write a piece of less than 3000 words proposing the case for a law reform which is desirable, practical and useful. Top prize is £4000 which could come in very handy for funding some part of your legal education.

City GDL students have won in previous years: Daisy Ricketts (2011) and Calum Docherty (2010) were both successful. Calum proposed the reform of copyright law in Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Reforming Fair Dealing in English Copyright Law and Daisy with Strengthening the Rule of Law: Reforming the Scope on Parliamentary Privilege . In 2012 City student Mek Mesfin was runner-up in the CPE category and in 2013 Ross Beaton , a City GDL alumni won the overall prize. You can see all previous winners and read their essays via the Bar Council website .

Phoebe Whitlock won in the GDL category for 2016's competition with an entry entitled Rivalling Silicon Valley: The case for the reform of Software Patents. Take a look at the CityNews story about this. For the 2017 competition, GDL student Clarissa Wigoder won first prize with her essay Spare the rod: Why the law on corporal punishment needs to be reformed, and Daniel Fox was named runner-up with his piece: I hate being idle: Asylum seekers and the right to work. In 2020 BPTC alumnus Oliver Brewis won for his piece: Unravelling the Sleeve of Care: Fair Remuneration for Employer-contracted Sleep . In 2021, GDL student Annika Weis won with her entry: Licence to sanction - Stopping Environmental Crimes through UK Magnitsky legislation . Last year, GDL student Raphael Marshall was first runner-up in the competition.

Take a look at their entries (and other winners back to 2018) via the Bar Council website . The competition information usually comes out in April and the deadline for entries for 2023 is 23rd October at 5pm.

JLD Essay Competition

Open to its members, the Junior Lawyers Network of the Law Society , have an annual competition for those registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This includes LPC students and those qualified and working as paralegals. The deadline is normally around the end of November each year and they generally ask for essays of no more than 2000 words. I can't currently find any information about this year's competition, so have fired off an email to the organisation. Update soon!

Essay titles from previous years include:

Is there a role for the legal profession in environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations?

What’s in a name? Is the title of solicitor still relevant??

How will the rule of law be affected by advances in legal technology?

UKELA Andrew Lees Prize

Named for a former Friends of the Earth Campaign Director (Andrew Lees, a leading environmental campaigner who died unexpectedly in 1994) this prize has been going many years. You can view previous winners on the site and the winner normally receives support for travel and attendance at the UKELA annual conference as well as see your work published in their members' journal.

The deadline for submissions is usually around early April of each year. The 2024 competition is likely to launch in January 2024.

Find out more about the competition and associated rules on the UKELA website , as well as essay winners from past years.

The 2023 competition pivoted around the following statement: 'If we are to meet the challenges of the climate and nature crises, it is essential to strengthen current approaches to environmental governance. Discuss'. You can read the winning entry via the UKELA website.

ARDL Marion Simmons QC Essay Competition

Annual essay competition from the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers . Students are asked to write no more than 1500 words on a topic. The competition asks applicants to submit an essay on a regulatory law or disciplinary law topic of their choice.

First prize winner takes home £2000, second prize winner £1000 and third prize £500. Details of the competition are normally released in February, with a deadline for submission in late April.

Entry is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students in the UK and a wide range of early practitioners too. You can see full eligibility details via the competition website .

FIDE Essay Prize

The UK Association for European Law also run an essay competition, with the winner securing a bursary to attend the biennial FIDE CONGRESS Conference, which usually takes place in May.

Students are generally asked to write no more than 2000 words (including footnotes) on the topic provided.

Submissions are judged by a panel from the UKAEL committee, who will award the winner registration at the conference in addition to £600 towards accommodation and travel. The winner of this prize in 2018 was William Spence, GDL student at City. In 2014 another City student (BPTC) took the prize, Niall Coghlan. You can read both their essays via the UKAEL website. Niall has had a great year for developing his European Law expertise - he was also part of the team that won the European Human Rights Moot in Strasbourg.

Sadly the competition has been on pause in recent years and will likely not run in 2024.

Future Legal Mind Award

Launched in 2014 by the National Accident Helpline the winner of this competition will receive £1500 towards their career development, as well as gain access to mentoring and a work experience placement.

There are separate awards for undergraduates and postgraduates. The last time the competition ran was 2022. You can find out more about the competition and see the winning entries via the National Accident Helpline competition website . The organisers have confirmed that it will run again in 2024.

The 2015 winner in the postgraduate category was Lukas Hamilton-Eddy (City GDL student). In 2016 the prize was again won by a City GDL student, Tom Phillips. He wowed judges with his essay on the future of legal services for firms and consumers. Another City student, Pavlos Artemios Xagoraris also made the finalists stage. Pavlos is in the first year of his Graduate Entry LLB. Katherine Strange (GDL) was a finalist in 2017. We're overdue another City winner!

Property Bar Association Essay Competition

This competition was launched in November 2015 and asks students each year to write a 1000-word essay, with the winner taking home £1000, a copy of Megarry & Wade AND their essay published in the Estates Gazette .

The question for 2023 was Has equity been taken too far in enforcing informal promises of interests in land?

The question is normally released in November each year and the essay deadline in early January.

Arabella Adams (City GDL) won the 2017 competition and Elijah Granet (City GDL) won first prize in the 2020 competition .

SCL Student Essay Prize

The Society for Computers and Law annual essay competition asks entrants to write a maximum of 2000 words in order to be in with a chance of winning a free place at the annual SCL Conference, publication of your essay in the SCL Computers and Law magazine and £300. The competition honours the memory of the amazing Sir Henry Brooke, a former President of SCL.

The 2021 competition (deadline was in November of that year) asked students to address the following question in fewer than 2500 words:

There is increasing concern that machine learning tools embed bias in their operations and outputs. To what extent does the law currently provide adequate protection from or adequate redress in respect of any such discrimination?

We've contacted the SCL to find out if this competition will run in 2024.

Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law

This competition was launched in 2020 by SpicyIP , in honour of their founder Professor Shamnad Basheer. Excitingly this competition asks for submissions on anything related to intellectual property rights – the more creative the better. The call generally comes out in May of each year.

The word limit for submissions is 5,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) and the deadline for submissions is June 30, 2020 (23:59 IST).

All submissions and any queries should be e-mailed to [email protected].

The competition is open to students currently enrolled in any LLB program (or its equivalent – meaning students enrolled in J.D. programs can take part) across the world.

We are awaiting information on the 4th annual essay competition but you can see the winners of the 2022 competition and their essays via the SpicyIP website .

UK Centre for Animal Law Essay Competition

The details of the 2024 competition will be released in November 2023.

Last year's competition title was:

Can the UK’s hunting legislation be reformed to ensure practical protection for UK wildlife? .

The inaugral competition was won by City GDL and BVS student Sam Groom. You can see a fantastic video of Sam speaking about the competition on the competition website.

First prize is a £150 book voucher and the chance to get your essay published in the UK Journal of Animal Law.

The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law Essay Competition

The organisers state that the aim of their competition is to:

...encourage students to explore the fascinating questions that animals rights raise, and to discuss these questions in an original piece of writing that may inspire them to engage further with the topic in the future.

No information regarding the 2024 competition yet but in 2023 the question was as follows:

Richard Ryder once wrote: “Since Darwin, scientists have agreed that there is no ‘magical’ essential difference between human and other animals, biologically-speaking. Why then do we make an almost total distinction morally?” Assuming that is correct, how does this affect the arguments for and against animal rights laws?

The winning essay in the university category receives £750. You can read winning essays from the previous years of the competition via the competition website .

Littleton Chambers Sports Law Essay Competition

This annual competition from Littleton Chambers offers young lawyers the chance to get their ideas out to the wider sporting community and various monetary prizes, plus a sports law mini-pupillage. First prize is £1000, second prize £500 and third place receives £250.

The 2023 competition deadline was end of February 2023, so we anticipate a similar one for the 2024 competition. Entrants were asked to submit a piece of work between 1,500 and 2,500 words, on the following title:

Transparency has been prized as foundational to good governance in sport (see, for instance, the International Olympic Committee’s Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance, principle 2). To what extent (if at all) are sport regulators justified in using confidential procedures, such as arbitration, to deal with participant misconduct?

Until we get the info for the 2024 competition, have a look at the information on the 2023 competition pages .

Human Rights Essay Award

The Human Rights Essay Award is an annual competition (sponsored by the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Washington College of Law) that seeks to stimulate the production of scholarly work in international human rights law.

The Academy will grant two Awards, one for the best article in English and one for the best article in Spanish. The Award in each case will consist of:

• A full scholarship to the Program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law for either the Diploma or Certificate of Attendance options.
• Travel expenses to and from Washington D.C. (if the competition is not virtual)
• Housing at the university dorms
• Per diem for living expenses
• The best articles may also be published in the American University International Law Review

It is open to all lawyers around the world regardless of their nationality, but participants must already have a law degree Juris Doctor, (J.D.), Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) or equivalent by the submission due date to be eligible. They must also have a demonstrated experience or interest in international human rights law.

The 2022 topic was Climate Change and Human Rights: Impacts, Responsibilities, and Opportunities and the deadline was the end of January.

We are awaiting information on the 2024 competition.

FSLA Essay Competition

The Financial Services Lawyers Association runs an annual essay competition, normally with a deadline of early October each year. First prize is a generous £1500 and a legal internship at the FCA.

The 2023 competition title is Can the risks and opportunities of AI in financial services be managed by fine-tuning existing regulation, or is a new approach required? You need to get your entries in by midnight on 6th October 2023.

Look at the FSLA website for full details/rules. Note that membership of the FSLA is free to students!

ITSA Essay Competition

Open to students members of the Inner Temple, the 2023 competition asks entrants for essays of 2500 words maximum (including refs) on the following topic:

Is the Cab Rank Rule now redundant at the self-employed Bar?

Deadline is 4pm on Monday 6th November 2023 and first prize is £150 and publication of your essay in the Inner Temple Yearbook. Look at the competition website for full rules of the competition .

Lord Kerr Essay Competition 2023

Lord kerr essay competition 2023,, organised by the hrla young lawyers committee .

Essay question:

“Is there a human right to live free from poverty? Should there be?”

The deadline for submissions to the 2022 Lord Kerr essay Competition is 11.59pm UK time on May 1st 2023  via this Google Form .  The essay , the Essay Application Form , and the Diversity Monitoring Form are found within and are to be submitted via the Google Form.  

Please follow all the instructions in the Rules and Eligibility carefully before submitting.

To contact the HRLA Young Lawyers’ Committee: [email protected]

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Competition Law Association

JACQUES LASSIER PRIZE Organised by the LIDC (International League of Competition Law) to honor the memory of Jacques Lassier, a distinguished lawyer at the Paris Bar and former chairman of our organisation. This esteemed prize aims to promote scholarly contributions in the filed of competition law, fostering intellectual dialogue and innovation. Full details of the prize rules can be viewed here

GOLDING ESSAY PRIZE

The Golding Essay Prize is an annual prize of £1000 to be awarded for an essay submitted by (1) any  student (whether currently based in the UK or in a foreign jurisdiction) but excluding any student currently practising as a qualified lawyer, whether full-time or part-time; or (2) any trainee solicitor, pupil barrister, devil barrister (from Scotland) or trainee patent and trade mark attorney; or (3) a  qualified solicitor or barrister with less than 2 years PQE   o n a topic chosen by the CLA Committee. Past topics and winners are listed below. The CLA encourages all entrants to consider submitting their entries for publication, and may lend support to the submission of the winning entry. The winning entry must only be published if it is identified on publication as having won the CLA's Golding Essay Prize. All entrants agree not to submit their entries for publication until after the judges have announced their decision. Several past winners have been published by Sweet & Maxwell in European Intellectual Property Review (EPIR) or by Oxford University Press in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), and are reproduced below by agreement with the publishers. Golding Essay Prize 2024 Portfolios, Pools and Public Intervention - IP strategies for a greener future? Alex Mocanu, Trainee at Bristows LLP has won this years Golding Essay Prize. Congratulations Alex! Essay can be viewed here Golding Essay Prize 2023 How should 'bad faith' in trade mark applications be used to balance the interests of those who want to use the same or similar brands? The Essay Prize was not awarded this year . Golding Essay Prize 2022 Which courts should decide FRAND terms and whether patents are valid and essential to a standard and when should they do it? Josh Stickland, Trainee at Hogan Lovells won the Golding Essay Prize 2022

Golding Essay Prize 2021 The Next Rembrandt project (https://www.nextrembrandt.com/) has recently applied artifical intelligence to generate a 'new' Rembrandt painting. Should copyright subsist in A1 artworks and who should get it? Ben Williams, Trainee at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton won the Golding Essay Prize 2021 Download published winning Essay 2021 Golding Essay Prize 2020

Are the courts of England & Wales right to consider plausibility in so many contexts as part of their validity analysis? What is the legal basis for their approach and what are the potential consequences? The Essay Prize was not awarded this year . Golding Essay Prize 2019

Following Brexit, will or should IP rights prevent the importation into the UK of goods put on the market outside the UK by the rightholder or with their consent? Franziska Kurz, Graduate of Oxford University won the Golding Essay Prize 2019. The prize will be formally awarded at our lunchtime event on 19 June Download published winning Essay 2019

Golding Essay Prize 2018

Was the Supreme Court right in Actavis v Eli Lilly to introduce a doctrine of equivalents when determining infringement of patents in the UK? Crawford Jamieson, Trainee at Allen & Overy won the Golding Essay Prize 2018        

Download published winning Essay 2018 This material was first published by Sweet & Maxwell in European Intellectual Property Review E.I.P.R 2019, 41(3), 147-154  Golding Essay Prize 2017

How can owners of EU trade marks effectively maintain their rights following Brexit, and what implications is this likely to have for trademark litigation and licensing? Will any assistance be needed by way of legislation to preserve rights of such owners in the UK? Emily Thea won the Golding Essay Prize 2017         

Golding Essay Prize 2016 "How should three dimensional shapes be protected under intellectual property law?" The Essay Prize was not awarded this year as the judges determined that no entry was of sufficient quality .

Golding Essay Prize 2015 "Are the new 'fair dealing' provisions an improvement on the previous law, and why" Sabine Jacques, a PhD student at Nottingham University ,  won the Golding Essay Prize 2015                                   

Link to Published Article in Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice

Golding Essay Prize 2014 To what extent should Courts take jurisdiction over infringement of foreign IP rights? Hazan Yilmaztekin, University of Exeter won the Golding Essay Prize 2014.         

Download Winning Essay 2014          

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Home → Study Here → Outreach → Essay Competitions

St Hugh’s essay competitions are open to Sixth Formers from the UK and across the world. These are a fantastic opportunity to explore a topic of interest in a particular subject in more depth, whether something you have studied at school has inspired you, or whether you are keen to broaden your horizons in a new academic discipline.

All four competitions are now open: the deadline for submissions is 5pm (GMT) on Friday 26th July 2024.

To find out more about these competitions please click on the links below:

Mary Renault

Kavita singh, gwyneth bebb, privacy overview.

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How Our Essay Competition Works

Submit your entry.

Research and write your essay and then submit it, along with your references, via our short form below.

Entries close at 9pm UK time on 15th April 2024 !

Awards Ceremony

All shortlisted entrants and their parents and teachers will be invited to attend our Awards Ceremony in May 2024, where the winners will be announced.

Over £100,000 Worth of Academic Prizes

Free Conference place

The first thousand students who are successfully shortlisted will be awarded a free place at one of our OxBright Conferences (worth £95) in the autumn. Alternatively, you can put this credit towards an Online Course or Online Internship .

All shortlisted entrants and their parents and teachers will be invited to attend our online Awards Ceremony in May 2024, where the winners will be announced.

Matilda Winner, History, 2023

I’m both thrilled and flabbergasted at the outcome of the competition.

Winning this competition undoubtedly made me feel much more confident in researching and writing in my field from now on, opening a lot of new doors for me!

Regina Winner, Psychology, 2023

I’m very happy and grateful to win such a meaningful competition. I truly learned a lot.

My advice to anyone considering entering is to try to think deeper and further about your chosen topic.

Alex Winner, Philosophy, 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

Entering the essay competition, how will entering the oxbright essay competition help me in the future, why do you run an essay competition.

OxBright is about giving students the edge to help them to succeed, find their purpose and make a difference in the world.

We think it’s the greatest time to be alive, but we’re aware that young people face challenges their predecessors didn’t. We’re passionate about encouraging students to be optimistic about the future by being active thinkers interested in collaborating to create a better future for the long-term. You can read more about this in our Worldview .

Our essay competition combines these two elements – encouraging students to think actively about the future, and giving them tools to help them to succeed.

Who can enter?

Anyone can enter – the only eligibility criteria is that you must be aged between 15-18. You don’t need to have previously joined an OxBright programme in order to take part.

Kindly be aware that to be eligible to take up any of the free places offered as prizes, such as our online courses/internships, winning students must be between the ages of 15 and 18 at the commencement of the programme.

Can I write more than one essay?

Sorry, we only accept one essay per student in each Essay Competition. This is due to the volume of essays we receive.

Can I enter jointly with a friend?

No, we can only accept entries from individuals, and it’s important to make sure that your work is entirely your own.

Is there a fee to enter the OxBright Essay Competition?

No, the essay competition is completely free to enter.

When is the entry deadline?

The deadline has been extended, and is now the 15th April 2024, at 9pm.

Are you connected to any university?

No, OxBright is an independent education organisation which is not connected to any university.

Where can I see the results of the Essay Competition 2023?

You can see the results of our previous Essay Competition, including the winning essay in full, here .

Writing Your Essay

What are the subject categories i can enter for, how long should my essay be.

There are three parts to the essay:

• Essay title: the title of your essay can be up to 100 characters long, including spaces
• Essay: your essay can have up to 3,800 characters , including spaces (this is about 500 words). This includes everything you write, like the main text and in-text citations. In-text citations are little notes you put in your essay to show where your information came from. For example, if you quote something from a book by John Smith, you would add (Smith, 2010, p. 50) right after the quote. These citations are part of your word count, so make sure to include them
• References: as for references, there’s no word limit – you can include as many as you need! These are important for showing where your information came from. Please use the Harvard Referencing Style for your references (you can find how to do this in the guidelines provided here ). This won’t count towards your essay character limit, so please list all the sources you used

What are the evaluation criteria?

We’ll be assessing essays on the following criteria:

• Fluency of written English
• Relevance to the question
• Creativity and originality of ideas
• Use of evidence or examples
• Relevance to the OxBright Worldview

Should I use references?

Please make sure to include references to your sources, using the Harvard Referencing Style (guidelines here ).

What makes a good essay?

Make sure to read our criteria carefully (you can find it in the FAQ above).

We want essays that are thoroughly researched, packed with examples and solid evidence. What really catches our attention are essays with unique analysis. So, we’re not just interested in essays that simply describe things – we want your thoughts, analysis, and fresh ideas.

Don’t forget, it’s crucial to use and mention trustworthy sources for the evidence you provide.

Do you accept personal or descriptive essays?

We’re looking for clear, concise and compelling answers to the question above, written and formatted in an academic style. Please don’t submit personal essays or creative writing samples.

What Happens Next?

When will i hear the results.

We’ll be in touch within two weeks of your entry to let you know whether or not you’ve been shortlisted (all entrants who meet our core standards of relevance and coherence will be shortlisted).

All shortlisted entrants and their parents and teachers will be invited to our Awards Ceremony in May 2024, when the winners in each subject category will be announced.

How are essays assessed?

You can read about the criteria we use to assess your essay in the FAQ above (“What are the evaluation criteria?”).

Essays are assessed using our proprietary system which combines a mixture of technology and personal assessment. Essays which are deemed to be plagiarised or be written by AI will be rejected and our decision on this is final.

There are two stages to our assessment process:

Shorlisting Our first stage assessment reviews whether the essay is relevant and coherent. If so, your essay will be shortlisted, you will be offered a free place at an OxBright Conference and you will be invited to the Awards Ceremony.

Awards Shortlised essays are then given further assessment by our panel. This includes a review of the References. In the application form, we ask for a the name of a teacher who is familiar with your academic work. If your essay is nominated for an Award, we will ask this teacher to confirm that the essay was genuinely written by you.

What are the prizes?

Please click here for more information about the prizes and awards.

Why is the overall prize a place at Oxford Scholastica in 2025, not 2024?

Will i receive feedback.

Unfortunately, due to the volume of entries received, we are unable to provide feedback on essays.

Does everyone who enters get a free place at a Conference?

The first thousand students to who make a valid submission and are shortlisted will be invited to attend an OxBright Conference of their choice, free of charge (worth £95). Conference subjects include Business, Medicine, Law and Psychology. It is optional to attend a Conference.

Alternatively, you’ll be able to choose to apply the £95 credit toward another programme with us.

Does everyone receive a certificate?

Only students who win one of the awards receive a certificate. Certificates are issued in online format.

Do you publish the names of the award winners?

Yes, award winners will be published on our website after the Awards Ceremony.

How can I pass on some feedback about the essay competition?