transcending ideas global essay competition

Requirements & Further Detail

Competition Key Dates:

18th Nov 2022: Registration open

16th April 2023: Submission deadline

8th May 2023: Announcement of the finalists

15th-21 May 2023: Online finals, in which the finalists will be required to deliver a presentation about their essay to the judge

26th May 2023: Announcement of the prize winners

July-August 2023: Award Ceremony held in Cambridge, date to be confirmed

Entry Requirements

1. Entry is open to students from any country.

2. Participants should be younger than 18 years old (including 18 years old) on the date of the submission deadline (16th April 2023)

3. The essay should not exceed 2000 words for the main context (not counting figures, tables, bibliography, etc.). Crafting a good essay requires careful argumentation, clear structure and originality. It is this set of characteristics that we will look for when judging applicants’ essays.

Scholarships

There will be First Place, Second Place, and Third Place for each subject. They will be awarded a scholarship towards the cost of attending any CCISTC Summer Research or Online Research programmes:

First Place: £2000 worth of scholarship towards the cost of attending CCISTC programmes

Second Place: £1000 worth of scholarship towards the cost of attending CCISTC programmes

Third Place: £500 worth of scholarship towards the cost of attending CCISTC programmes

All finalists will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony and Dinner in Cambridge. Further details will be announced closer to the dates. 

We would consider organising an online ceremony for finalists who could not visit Cambridge in person for the Award Ceremony.

Please submit your work in PDF Format. 

Essay Competition Terms & Conditions:

Participants should be younger than 18 years old (including 18 years old) on the date of the submission deadline (16th April 2023)

The student must complete the essays independently – they must be original, non-plagiarised work.

The final decision on finalists and prize winners rests with CCISTC. By submitting an entry, the student agrees to respect and honour the decision made by CCISTC. Due to the number of entries received, no correspondence will be entered into.  

The student agrees to assist with promoting the essay competition scheme if awarded a prize.

The finalists and prize winners agree to their names being published on CCSITC websites, as well as on its social media platforms.

The essay competition scholarships could only be used towards the cost of attending any CCISTC summer or online research programmes, and they cannot be redeemed for cash. The scholarship is valid for two years from the date of announcement of the awards.

The student must have permission from a parent or guardian to join the essay competition.

Students do not have to pay a fee for entering the essay competition.

Please note that all terms and conditions for CCSITC programmes, including the cancellation policy, also apply to scholarship recipients.

Berggruen Prize Essay Competition

The Berggruen Prize Essay Competition seeks to stimulate new thinking and innovative concepts while embracing cross-cultural perspectives across fields, disciplines, and geographies. By posing fundamental philosophical questions of significance for both contemporary life and for the future, the competition will serve as a complement to the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture, which recognizes major lifetime achievements in advancing ideas that have shaped the world.

The inspiration for the competition originates from the role essays have played in the past, including the essay contest held by the Académie de Dijon. In 1750, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's essay Discourse on the Arts and Sciences , also known as The First Discourse , won and notably marked the onset of his prominence as a profoundly influential thinker. Similarly, our competition aspires to create a platform for groundbreaking ideas and intellectual innovation.

The annual Berggruen Prize Essay Competition will accept submissions in two languages: Chinese and English. Each language category will have a prize of $25,000 USD and intends to recognize one winner, though there may be multiple winners in any given year.

The Berggruen Institute will host an award ceremony and convene the authors of the winning essays in dialogue with established scholars and thinkers at one of our global centers. We plan to publish the winning essays in our award-winning English-language magazine Noema and Chinese-language magazine Cuiling , giving readers insight into perspectives of both East and West.

We are inviting essays that follow in the tradition of renowned thinkers such as Rousseau, Michel de Montaigne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Submissions should present novel ideas and be clearly argued in compelling ways for intellectually serious readers. We are not seeking peer-reviewed academic work. Below is a selection of exemplary essays that epitomize the genre and style we look for. While some of these pieces are authored by already distinguished thinkers, we have chosen them primarily for their exceptional embodiment of genre and style.

• Chomsky, N. (1967). The responsibility of intellectuals. The New York Review of Books .
• Frankfurt, H. G. (1971). Freedom of the will and the concept of a person. Journal of Philosophy , 68(1), 5-20.
• Fukuyama, F. (1989). The end of history? The National Interest , 16, 3–18.
• Huntington, S. P. (1993). The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs , 72(3), 22-49.
• Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat? The Philosophical Review , 83(4), 435-450.
• Sontag, S. (1966). Against interpretation. In Against Interpretation and Other Essays (pp. 3-14). Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
• Walker, S. (2023). AI is life. Noema Magazine .
• Zadeh, J. (2021). The tyranny of time. Noema Magazine .

Eligibility Criteria

Submission requirements, code of conduct, terms & conditions.

Required fields are marked with *

Advisory Panel

• Lucas Angioni
• Arjun Appadurai
• Julian Baggini
• Tongdong Bai
• Rajeev Bhargava
• Annabel Brett
• Craig Calhoun
• Dipesh Chakrabarty
• Lesong Cheng
• Weiwen Duan
• Robyn Eckersley
• Sam Fleischacker
• Christia Fotini
• Gan Chunsong
• Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
• Asher Jiang
• Michèle Lamont
• Meira Levinson
• Chenyang Li
• Qiaoying Lu
• Jianhua Mei
• Pankaj Mishra
• Viren Murthy
• Thierry Ngosso
• Mathias Risse
• Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem
• Vladimir Safatle
• Allison Simmons
• Smita Sirker
• Xiangchen Sun
• Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir
• Samantha Vice
• Robin R. Wang
• Dingxin Zhao
• Zhao Tingyang

• News & Event /
• What's New /

‘Transcending Ideas’ Global Essay Competition 2022

‘Transcending Ideas’ Global Essay Competition, conducted by the Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology, and Culture from the University of Cambridge, welcomes students at or below Grade 12 across the world to demonstrate and develop innovative thinking.

Two of our students, Anson Tam and Victoria Chong from Form 6 Science, participated in this global essay competition. Under the guidance of Mr. Kevin Cheong, their essays were judged by professors from the University of Cambridge in relevant subjects and entered the final round. They were invited to an online conference to deliver the final presentations to the judges for evaluation. They achieved outstanding results among 260 participants around the world.

We are delighted to announce that Anson Tam won the First Prize award with her essay The effects of climate change on the civil aviation industry in the subject of Engineering and Sustainability, and Victoria Chong won the First Prize award with her piece Is Artificial Intelligence a threat to human kinds? in the subject of Computer Science.

They would like to take this opportunity to share their insights into this competition.

Anson Tam: My genuine interest in climate change was what drove me to participate in the essay competition. Given this opportunity, I was able to gain a deeper insight into how susceptible the civil aviation industry, one of the most vital transportation sectors, may have the effects of this global issue, which has fuelled my curiosity to explore sustainable solutions to alleviate the problem. However, since I had no prior experience writing research essays and little knowledge about the industry, it was not easy to accomplish this task. Fortunately, with perseverance and guidance, I was able to conquer my fears. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr Kevin, my beloved school, and CCISTC for this wonderful experience.

Victoria Chong: This summer, I had the opportunity to compete in the ‘Transcending Ideas Global Essay Competition’, in which I composed a 2000-word research essay on Artificial Intelligence. It was a lot of work, considering I had no prior expertise in the computer science field. I spent around two months analyzing countless academic essays and writing my own. It still feels surreal that I was able to get into the finals, where I virtually met one of the professors teaching at the University of Cambridge. I presented my essay, and we each shared some of our perspectives on the future of AI. I am privileged that my hard work was acknowledged and appreciated. During the past couple of months, I have discovered my passion for AI, and I intend to further my education in this sector. I am here to encourage all Rosians to stretch yourselves and take on bigger challenges because you will learn much more than you anticipated.

Congratulations to Anson and Victoria!

Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize, registrations are now open all essayists must register  here  before friday 31 may, 2024.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?

In the original version of this question we misstated a statistic. This was caused by reproducing an error that appeared in several media summaries of the study. We are grateful to one of our contestants, Xinyi Zhang, who helped us to see (with humility and courtesy) why we should take more care to check our sources. We corrected the text on 4 April. Happily, the correction does not in any way alter the thrust of the question.

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition. To register, click here .  

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?

A. No. Only candidates who registered before 31 May will be able to submit an essay. 

Q. Are footnote s, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?

A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted. 

Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit? ​

A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

Q. Is it necessary to include foo tnotes or endnotes in an essay? ​

A. You  may not  include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should ackn owledge any other authors on whom you rely.​

Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?

A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.

Q. How strict are  the age eligibility criteria?

A. Only students whose nineteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. In the case of the Junior category, only students whose fifteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. 

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.

Q. If I am eligible to compete in the Junior category, may I also (or instead) compete in another category?

A. Yes, you may.

Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?  

A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.

Q. May I use AI, such as ChatGPT or the like, in writing my essay?

A. All essays will be checked for the use of AI. If we find that any content is generated by AI, your essay will be disqualified. We will also ask you, upon submission of your essay, whether you used AI for  any  purpose related to the writing of your essay, and if so, you will be required to provide details. In that case, if, in our judgement, you have not provided full and accurate details of your use of AI, your essay will be disqualified. 

Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence. 

Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?

A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.

However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them. 

Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize? ​

A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize. Normally the Second Round judges will agree that the short-listed essays are worth at least a commendation.

Q. Is there an entry fee?

A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 20.00 USD .

Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted? 

A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.

Q. Can I receive feedba ck on my essay? 

A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.

Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.

A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).

Q. Why isn't the awards ceremony in Oxford this year?

A. Last year, many shortlisted finalists who applied to join our invitation-only academic conference missed the opportunity because of capacity constraints at Oxford's largest venues. This year, the conference will be held in central London and the gala awards dinner will take place in an iconic London ballroom. 

TECHNICAL FAQ s

Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?  

A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.

Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?

A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database. ​ ​

Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?

A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.

TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are unable to submit your essay to the John Locke Institute’s global essay competition, your problem is almost certainly one of the following.

If so, please proceed as indicated.

1) PROBLEM: I receive the ‘registrations are now closed’ message when I enter my email and verification code. SOLUTION. You did not register for the essay competition and create your account. If you think you did, you probably only provided us with your email to receive updates from us about the competition or otherwise. You may not enter the competition this year.

2) PROBLEM I do not receive a login code after I enter my email to enter my account. SOLUTION. Enter your email address again, checking that you do so correctly. If this fails, restart your browser using an incognito window; clear your cache, and try again. Wait for a few minutes for the code. If this still fails, restart your machine and try one more time. If this still fails, send an email to [email protected] with “No verification code – [your name]” in the subject line.

SUBMITTING AN ESSAY

3) PROBLEM: The filename of my essay is in the correct format but it is rejected. SOLUTION: Use “Edit Profile” to check that you did not add a space before or after either of your names. If you did, delete it. Whether you did or did not, try again to submit your essay. If submission fails again, email [email protected] with “Filename format – [your name]” in the subject line.

4) PROBLEM: When trying to view my submitted essay, a .txt file is downloaded – not the .pdf file that I submitted. SOLUTION: Delete the essay. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “File extension problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

5) PROBLEM: When I try to submit, the submission form just reloads without giving me an error message. SOLUTION. Log out of your account. Open a new browser; clear the cache; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Submission form problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

6) PROBLEM: I receive an “Unexpected Error” when trying to submit. SOLUTION. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If this resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Unexpected error – [your name]” in thesubject line. Your email must tell us e xactly where in the submission process you received this error.

7) PROBLEM: I have a problem with submitting and it is not addressed above on this list. SOLUTION: Restart your machine. Clear your browser’s cache. Try to submit again. If this fails, email [email protected] with “Unlisted problem – [your name]” in the subject line. Your email must tell us exactly the nature of your problem with relevant screen caps.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU EMAIL US.

Do not email us before you have tried the specified solutions to your problem.

Do not email us more than once about a single problem. We will respond to your email within 72 hours. Only if you have not heard from us in that time may you contact us again to ask for an update.

If you email us regarding a problem, you must include relevant screen-shots and information on both your operating system and your browser. You must also declare that you have tried the solutions presented above and had a good connection to the internet when you did so.

If you have tried the relevant solution to your problem outlined above, have emailed us, and are still unable to submit before the 30 June deadline on account of any fault of the John Locke Institute or our systems, please do not worry: we will have a way to accept your essay in that case. However, if there is no fault on our side, we will not accept your essay if it is not submitted on time – whatever your reason: we will not make exceptions for IT issues for which we are not responsible.

We reserve the right to disqualify the entries of essayists who do not follow all provided instructions, including those concerning technical matters.

The Future We Want, The UN We Need – ESSAY COMPETITION

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, the Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Commemoration of the United Nation s ’ 75th Anniversary and Devex, are excited to announce the launch of an Essay Competition for the best essay by a young person on  the topic ‘The Future We Want, The UN We Need’ .

We are calling on young people between the ages of 15 and 29 to share their views and suggestions about the UN’s future role by answering the question:  Within the context of th e “new normal” that has unfolded post-COVID-19, and as we plan and re-build to recovery, what does the future of the UN look like to you? 

We want you to be a part of the largest global conversation launched by the United Nations on the role of global cooperation, marking its 75th Anniversary. We want to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Find more information about the competition on the Envoy on Youth’s   s ocial m edia accounts. We look forward to reading your essays!

The competition closes on June 29, 2020. The final winner will be selected by a high-level selection panel a nd the winner will be announced at the end of August 2020 as part of the #31DaysOfYOUth campaign. The winner will be invited virtually to take part in the UN75 Commemoration events in New York.  

🏆 WINNERS 🏆

🏅 1st – maisie zheng 🏅, 2nd – jennifer griggs, 3rd – emiliano reyes.

Rules of the competition:

1) Participation

• Participants must be between the ages of 1 5 and 29 .
• Participants must have written the essay by themselves. Only individual entries are admitted, no teams are allowed to take part in the competition.  
• Essays must answer the question by making a case, analysing the situation, and building a case based on researched arguments and facts.  
• Essays may be submitted in English only.
• Entries must be  no longer than 800 words .

2) Selection process

• The best essay will be selected according to the following criteria:  
• Quality of the arguments , good writing, although the selection panel  will take into consideration particularly entrants whose native language is not English .
• The essays will not be reviewed and graded by how aligned the arguments presented are with the United Nations’ or the essay competition organizing partners’ views.
• All essays will be assessed by a first panel  composed of UN staff members who will shortlist 10 essays .
• The shortlisted 10 essays will be reviewed and graded  by a h igh- l evel selection panel composed of Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Mr. Fabrizio Hochschild-Drummond, the Under – Secretary – General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Commemoration of the United Nations 75th Anniversary , and a representative from Devex .
• The names of the 3 finalists will be published on the official page of the competition hosted on the OSGEY’s website and by Devex .  
• The final winner’s essay will be published on the official page of the competition and promoted via the United Nations platforms and by Devex .  
• The winner will be invited to take part in the UN 75 Commemoration events which will take place virtually .  

4) How to enter

• All entries must be received by 11:59 pm (New York Time) on 29 June 2020, the closing date of the competition. Only entries submitted by this deadline will enter the competition .  
• Entries must be submitted as plaintext in the body of an email addressed to [email protected], with the subject line: ‘The Future We Want, The UN We Need’   . Note: File attachments are not allowed and will not be opened.  
• Entries must be  no longer than 800 words .  
• Entries cannot be returned so please remember to retain a copy.  
• All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party.
• Entries must not contain defamatory, obscene, offensive, or any other unsuitable material.
• Entries must be suitable to be published for audiences of all ages.

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St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition 2024 (CHF 20,000 prize)

Deadline: February 1, 2024

Applications are open for the St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition 2024 . Compete in the Global Essay Competition and qualify for participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world’s premier opportunity for cross-generational debates: The St. Gallen Symposium.

Meet 300 of society’s brightest young minds. Present and debate your ideas with 600 senior leaders. Be inspired by some of the world’s most impressive speakers. Gain a unique and new perspective on this year’s topic. Become a member of a unique global community. Participate in the symposium.

Topic Question : Striving for more or thriving with less – What pressing scarcity do you see, and how do you suggest to tackle it?

Scarcity generally refers to a situation where human needs exceed available resources. This year’s Global Essay Competition invites young leaders worldwide to focus on a specific contemporary or future challenge related to scarcity and propose an innovative way to address it.

Be creative in thinking about proposed solutions: do we need to strive for more and find ways to boost the availability of the resource in question? Or does it focus on ways to thrive with less and thus rethink our needs and demand?

Be free in choosing which scarce resource you focus on: examples include – but are NOT limited to – human labour, capital, natural resources, or intangibles like time, creativity, or care. Be bold and precise in describing a contemporary or future challenge of scarcity and the specific kind of resources you focus on and offer a concrete and actionable idea of how we should confront it.

• Win prize money of CHF 20,000 split amongst the three winners.

Eligibility

• Be enrolled in a graduate or postgraduate programme (master level or higher) in any field of study at a regular university;
• Born in 1994 or later.

Selection Criteria

For your contribution to be valid, the following criteria must be met:

• Be in Essay form (max. 2,100 words, excl. abstract, bibliography, and footnotes)
• Your name, e-mail address, university, or any identifying details must not be mentioned anywhere in the contribution file.
• Individual work expected, no group work allowed. The essay must be written exclusively for this contest. The idea must be the author’s own.
• All sources must be cited and referred to the respective part in the essay. All contributions will be tested for plagiarism.
• Acceptable language is English.

Application

Make sure you can provide the following documents:

• Copy of passport or other identification (in English for non-Roman languages).
• Confirmation of matriculation/enrolment from your university which proves your enrollment in a graduate/postgraduate level programme as of February 1, 2023 (download sample document here ).
• Your contribution file with no indication of your name in the file name, the file metadata or the file itself.

Click here to register

For more information, visit Global Essay Competition .

Jude Ogar is an educator and youth development practitioner with years of experience working in the education and youth development space. He is passionate about the development of youth in Africa.

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St Gallen Symposium's Global Essay Competition on Striving for more or thriving with less

Compete in the St. Gallen Symposium's Global Essay Competition and qualify for participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world’s premier opportunity for cross-generational debates. Deadline February 1st, 2024.

Global Essay Competition

Compete in the St. Gallen Symposium's Global Essay Competition and qualify for participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world’s premier opportunity for cross-generational debates:

Meet 300 of society’s brightest young minds.

Present and debate your ideas with 600 senior leaders.

Be inspired by some of the world’s most impressive speakers.

Gain a unique and new perspective on this year’s topic.

Become a member of a unique global community.

Participate in the symposium with us.

Win prize money of CHF 20,000 split amongst the three winners.

Topic Question

Striving for more or thriving with less – What pressing scarcity do you see, and how do you suggest to tackle it?

Scarcity generally refers to a situation where human needs exceed available resources . This year’s Global Essay Competition invites young leaders worldwide to focus on a specific contemporary or future challenge related to scarcity and propose an innovative way to address it.

Be creative in thinking about proposed solutions: do we need to strive for more and find ways to boost the availability of the resource in question? Or does it focus on ways to thrive with less and thus rethink our needs and demand?

Be free in choosing which scarce resource you focus on: examples include – but are NOT limited to – human labour, capital, natural resources, or intangibles like time, creativity, or care. Be bold and precise in describing a contemporary or future challenge of scarcity and the specific kind of resources you focus on, and offer a concrete and actionable idea of how we should confront it.

Registration

Please register here

1 February 2024, 11:59 p.m. last time zone (UTC-12)

More information here

Organised by

The Nottingham-World Bank Economics Essay Competition

Winning article.

• The Nottingham-World Bank Economics Essay Competition 2021 asked, “What would be the economic consequences for Malaysia if technology replaces 50% of current jobs in the country? Who would benefit, and who would lose? Would we be better off ultimately?”
• The Competition is open to all pre-university in Malaysia.
• Published below is the Grand Prize written by Gwendolyn Chan Hui Pei from SMK Batu Lintang, Kuching.

Technology: Killer or Saviour? By Gwendolyn Chan Hui Pei, SMK Batu Lintang, Kuching

Kiva robots. That’s the name of Amazon’s “holiday workers” in a warehouse located in Tracy, California. Kiva robots are like orange suitcases on wheels that makes the shelves in warehouses come to you. More than 3000 of these robots cruise Amazon’s warehouse floors in California, helping employees complete millions of orders. Before Kiva robots, Amazon workers had to comb through warehouse aisles just to find certain products to complete shipments. Now, workers just stay on platforms while the robots bring the shelves with the items directly to them. These 320-pound robots can lift up to more than 2 times their weight, has motion sensors to detect objects in their way and can travel at 3-4 miles per hour. The robot’s small footprint allows it to fit up to 50% more inventory in the warehouses while simultaneously increasing efficiency up to 20%, filling orders in 15 instead of 90 minutes. Many worry about the jobs taken away from them by these robots, however this was not Amazon’s intention. But still, can we deny the number of workers these robots have replaced?

Applied technology can be evidently traced back to as early as the pre-16th century. In ancient Greece and Rome, many free workers became jobless due to simple ancient Greek technology in that period such as gears, screws, rotaries and mills. To overcome this, leaders in that era launched many public works such as infrastructure projects and recreational projects financed by the government to create jobs for the people. Some rulers go to the extent of refusing or banning new inventions and innovations to save labour costs. Emperor Vespasian, a Roman emperor rejected a new method of cost-effective transportation of heavy merchandise saying: "You must allow my poor hauliers to earn their bread." In the medieval and renaissance period, European authorities often sided with “guilds” or the majority of the working population and proceeded to refuse or ban new technologies. The constant dilemma of whether to adopt new technology can be seen in the 16th-18th century in Great Britain. The effect of innovation on employment became a concern which can be evidently seen when Queen Elizabeth I declined to issue a patent for a knitting machine invented by an English clergyman called William Lee on the account that it might cause the layoff of textile workers.

In the 19th century, many controversies and debates over technological unemployment arose. David Ricardo, a British political economist voiced his opinion on the implementation of technology and believing that it is often very injurious and harmful for workers when people substitute machine for human jobs. While many other economists supported his stand, a French economist named Jean Baptiste Say was the first to respond to Ricardo’s argument saying that machinery does not compete with labour, and society would be better off because of the increased productivity. Say mentioned that a new machine supersedes a portion of labour of a human worker, but does not reduce the amount of product, saying that it would be absurd to adopt it if it did. At that time, water carriers were relieved of duty due to the introduction of the hydraulic engine. Say could not deny the problem and recognised that the water carriers were still unemployed. Therefore, he believed that 3 factors would considerably alleviate the detrimental effects of unemployment:

• New machines are gradually created and still more gradually brought into use, giving those who are affected time to adjust.
• Machines cannot be created without the input of considerable human labour, which can create jobs for some workers even as machinery may put others out of work.
• The circumstances of consumers, including workers affected by the replacement with machinery, is improved by the lower prices of consumer products. [Adapted and paraphrased from Bruce Bartlett (1984) Cato Journal, vol. 4(2), pages 625-650]

How would replacing 50% of the current jobs with technology look like for Malaysia, a developing country? Firstly, the controversial problem still remains - workers in Malaysia would be susceptible to technological unemployment or tech layoff. Figure 1 below depicts Malaysian jobs at risk of automation. With AI (Artificial intelligence) on the rise, and automation replacing jobs, semi-skilled and low skilled workers are at a high risk of losing their jobs. 90% of semi- skilled jobs such as support workers and salespeople consist of Malaysians and 4 out of 5 jobs at high risk of displacement are semi-skilled jobs as compared to low-skilled jobs. Although Malaysia heavily depends on low-skill foreign labour especially in manufacturing and industrial sectors and there is a possibility of the replacement with technology reducing our reliance on it, the probability of Malaysians being put out of their jobs is higher, leaving a large figure of Malaysian workers unemployed. This is because most blue-collared jobs are highly susceptible to automation and ironically, a large portion of those positions are held by Malaysians. This might cause Malaysians to switch to lower pay jobs or not being employed at all. The sosio-economy of Malaysians would be under immense pressure. Unemployed Malaysian workers would have to suffer a lower standard of life. Occupations that are routine based and have many manual tasks are more susceptible to replacement by technology as compared to jobs that are non-routined and require high cognitive skills. At the end of the day, although our economy may be growing due to rise in productivity and lower price in the long term, the wellness of our own Malaysian citizens may be neglected in the short term.

Source: Methodology adapted from Frey and Osborne (2013) and ILO (2016) data from ILOSTAT and DOSM, author’s calculation [Adapted from The Times They Are A-Changin’: Technology, Employment, and the Malaysian Economy by Allen Ng, Khazanah Research Institute ]

Not only are the welfare of Malaysians put at risk, but also the scale of the economic equality in Malaysia will be tipped. With the replacement of workers with technology, companies that adopt labour-saving technologies will monopoly the industries. Some firms have exclusive rights to methods of manufacturing products causing smaller firms to lose out in competitiveness because of higher cost-per-unit. This will cause a great difference in terms of income among high skilled workers and technology owners versus semi-skilled and low skilled workers. A greater inequality of wages within occupations will arise as only certain workers have the skills needed for certain jobs. Skills that are hard to acquire in the technological field also can cause wages to be unequal. On top of that, income inequality may result in a higher rate of health problems and social problems.

On another note, replacement of human labour with technology will cause Malaysia to face a massive restructuring in different sectors in the economy. As higher productivity with new technology lowers prices of goods and opens new sectors to be explored, new labour demand will be created in certain sectors. The demand for jobs will switch from manufacturing sectors to services in the future, just like how the demand for jobs switched from agricultural sectors to manufacturing sectors in the late 90s in Malaysia. The chart below depicts the change in share of jobs by sector, recording the construction with the highest share and the manufacturing sector a negative figure. An increasing proportion of jobs require at least a college level certificate if not advanced degrees. This proves the need for Malaysians to upgrade their skill levels to be qualified and to keep up with the times.

Figure 2: Change in share of jobs by sector

Source: ONET, BLS, EIU, HIS, Oxford Economics, McKinsey Global Institute analysis [Adapted from Automation and adaptability: How Malaysia can navigate the future of work (2020) ]

In conjunction with creating new demand in the labour force across different sectors in Malaysia, the substitution of jobs with technology can possibly add more value to occupations with the human element, making jobs that require human interaction more valuable. For example, when Automated Teller Machines were first created to automate simple tasks such as simple transactions and deposits, the remaining tasks that cannot be automated became more valuable. Bank tellers became people who form personal relationships with the customers and can sell them financial services at a high margin.

On the flip side, wealth distribution becomes an uprising problem as not everyone is given a fair share even with increased productivity and lower cost. Advancement in various sectors may result in a digital divide between different regions and demographics. Urban areas may continue to advance whereas rural areas which are neglected continue to deteriorate in terms of technological advancements because of the failure of implementation of technology as a whole. Areas that have limited access lack the resources to advance in technology. This may possibly create a wider gap between regions and races socially and in terms of progress and cause an increase in poverty among different races in Malaysia.

However, we cannot deny the possibility of Malaysia flourishing with the implementation of technology. In the 1990s the Malaysian government has always put a priority in making Malaysia an industrialized country with the 7th prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launching Wawasan 2020. Since then, many efforts have been made in increasing Malaysia’s use of technology in different sectors. Though the replacement of jobs with technology might upset the labour force and possibly obsolete the field of manual labour in certain sectors in the short term, the demand for labour force in other trades will significantly increase in the long term. Increased production would increase supply, lowering the general cost of items, increasing the national dividend thus increasing our competitiveness in the global market. With time, a new demand of labour will be created placing new, skilled workers in those fields. Economic growth as a whole can be accelerated.

Technology replacing 50% of jobs also create high income jobs or increases the wages of existing workers that are involved in the field of technology but also widen existing income inequality at the same time. According to a study by Justin Lim, Kevin Wong, Rosaida Mohd Rasep and Sonia Kumari Selvarajan (2018), wages per worker in the ICT industry has risen proportionately from RM38,274 per annum to RM53097 per annum in 2015 whereas wages of workers in the non-ICT industry only rose by RM6150 in the course of 5 years. Because workers in the ICT industry comprise of a small share of the total labour force and small employment growth, the wage disparity between non-ICT workers and ICT workers has been widening and would likely continue to widen even more over time.

Figure 3: Wage per worker of ICT vs non-ICT Industry

Source: DOSM ICT Satellite Account, GDP by Income Approach, authors calculations [Adapted from Wage premiums in the digital economy: Evidence from Malaysia (2018) ]

With new technology being constructed, Malaysia can explore the possibility of taxing new technology or “robot taxes”. According to The Telegraph, Bill Gates even voiced out the opinion that robots that take away jobs from humans should be taxed, which can make up for income taxes from workers that lost jobs. This could slow down the speed of automation and its negative effects on the labour force. In August 2017, South Korea became the first to introduce the world’s first tax on robots by cutting tax incentives for investments to boost productivity. If 50% of jobs were to be replaced, taxes on technology could increase the country’s income and improve the citizen’s standard of life by giving back to the people, increasing economic development through new infrastructure digitally and physically.

In general, technology replacing 50% of jobs in Malaysia benefits most of the stakeholders in the long run and has the potential to generate economic wealth for Malaysia. New innovations and technology are churned out on a daily basis due to globalization. To be able to compete in the global market, Malaysia has to keep up with the times and take bold steps in adopting new technology in various sectors. Though there is a possibility of technology replacing human jobs, nothing beats the value of a human’s touch. To dampen the adverse side effects of replacing human workers with technology, policy makers need to create new alternatives in helping displaced workers readjust to new sectors and work environments. As for Malaysian citizens, we must not stand by the side lines idly, but instead hop on the wagon of change. Being active players in the labour force, we must not take the importance of education (especially in the field of technology) lightly and sharpen our sword of education thus increasing our skills. Only with technological intelligence can we as Malaysians stand out in the global market as drivers of change, standing out amongst nations that are technologically advanced.

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China Focus 2024 Annual Essay Contest

China Focus is thrilled to announce the 2024 China Focus Essay Contest. This year’s contest is organized by China Focus and is jointly hosted by the Fudan-UC Center on Contemporary China , the 1990 Institute , The Carter Center , and the 21st Century China Center . 

We will accept both Chinese and English submissions. The contest offers two topics and awards two prizes of $1,000 and four runner-up prizes of $500.

Award winners will grant China Focus and co-sponsors the right to publish their essays on their respective platforms or in their publications. Winners may then be contacted with additional award opportunities to transform their essays into teaching materials and also to discuss their work with a panel of experts during the summer.

2024 ESSAY TOPICS (CHOOSE ONLY ONE) :

Topic 1: China has positioned itself as a potential mediator in conflicts like the Russo-Ukrainian War and the conflicts in the Middle-East. How would you define China’s track record in its mediation? Evaluate Chinese success so far and the geopolitical implications and potential obstacles surrounding China’s newfound role as an international mediator.

Topic 2: The U.S. and China have had an ongoing exchange of students and migrants for years as a product of increasingly globalized education and labor markets. How does the flow of U.S.-Chinese populations influence U.S.-China relations? To what extent can these population flows and ensuing people-to-people ties help to stabilize the relationship?

CONTEST REQUIREMENTS

The contest is open to undergraduate, graduate students, and recent graduates. Each entry must be the original work of students enrolled during the 2023-24 academic year as well as students who graduated after May 2023. We especially welcome submissions by students from U.S. and Chinese universities. Collaborative projects are encouraged, but prize money must be split among collaborators. Entries can be in either English or Chinese.

Essays should be written in op-ed style, with references provided as appropriate but no need for detailed footnotes, with a length of up to 2,500 words in English and 3,000 in Chinese.

Each entry will be reviewed by a panel of judges drawn from the China Focus board of advisers, experts in U.S.-China relations from the 21st Century China Center, and others with relevant expertise.

CONTEST PRIZES

Two equal $1,000 prizes for contest winners, the 1990 Institute Prize and the Jimmy Carter Prize, will be awarded. Four runner-up essays will also be selected to win $500 each.

Winners will be selected on quality without regard to the question addressed in the essay. Essay winners may then be contacted with additional award opportunities entailing transforming their essays into teaching materials and/or discussing their essay themes with experts on a panel event during the summer.

CONTEST DEADLINE (EXTENDED)

May 1st, 2024, 11:59 PM PST

Contestants who have already submitted are free to send in any revisions before the new extended deadline.

PREVIOUS CONTEST WINNERS

https://chinafocus.ucsd.edu/category/essay-contest/

HOW TO ENTER

• Send your submission to us by email ( [email protected] ) with the subject heading: “CF Contest2024-LastName”
• Send from your official university email address.
• Send your essay attached as a PDF.
• Submission title
• Author name(s)
• Affiliated school
• Degree just completed or being pursued in the current school year
• Nationality
• 3-4 sentences bio
• An alternative (permanent) email address (different from the school email address)
• Where did you hear about the essay contest?

For more information, email [email protected] and follow our LinkedIn page.

2024″中国焦点”作文大赛

2024“中国焦点”年度征文比赛正式开启。本届征文比赛由“中国焦点”（China Focus）倡议和组织， 复旦-加大当代中国研究中心 、 1990学社 （The 1990 Institute）、 卡特中心 （The Carter Center）和 加州大学圣地亚哥分校21世纪中国研究中心 (21st Century China Center)共同协办。本届比赛共有两个主题，邀请就读于中、美两国的本科生、研究生 (包括毕业不到一年的学生) 任选其中一个主题，针对中美两国正共同面对的一些挑战表述自己的观点和看法。

比赛共将选出六篇优胜论文，两个冠名一等奖，奖金额1,000美金；和四个二等奖，奖金额500美金。有奖征文评委会将同时接受收中文及英文稿件。大赛组织方将在各自平台或出版物上发表获奖论文。届时，获奖者也将有机会获得额外奖励，与大赛组织方专家合作，将获奖文章改编成教学材料，并在暑假期间应邀参与远程讨论，与相关专家面对面讨论获奖论文。

征文比赛题目（二选一）

题目一： 中国在俄乌和中东地区局势中将自己定位为潜在的调停者。中国作为调停者迄今为止的表现如何?该如何评价中国为俄乌和中东地区局势带来的积极影响？中国的调停者角色是否会对地区局势产生影响？作为新晋的调停者，中国将会面临哪些障碍和考验?

题目二： 多年来，教育市场和劳动力市场的日益全球化促进了中美的学生交流和移民往来。中美之间的人口流动是如何影响中美双边关系? 在多大程度上，中美双边的人口流动和民间交流能够促进两国关系的稳定发展?

征文比赛资格和其他要求：

参赛者须于2023至2024学年度在中国或美国大学注册或有学籍（包括自2023年5月毕业不足一年的应届生）的学生。比赛对本科生、研究生以及博士生开放。如果征文稿由多位作者共同撰写，则奖金须平分。

稿件必须为参赛者原创，中、英文皆可。征文长度不超过英文2,500字、中文3,000字。文体属非学术论文，但必须有理有据，可以参照长篇时事评论、专栏形式或往届获奖征文。酌情提供参考文献，但无需详细脚注。

有奖征文评委会由“中国焦点”顾问团队，包括21世纪中国研究中心教授以及其他中美关系专家担任。

2024年5月1日，23：59（美西时间）

两个冠名一等奖，奖金额1,000美金。

四个二等奖，奖金额500美金。

• 在截止期限之前，将稿件存为PDF格式，寄至 [email protected] ，标题为“CF Contest2024-LastName”
• 征文必须由学校官方电子邮箱寄出
• 个人简历 (3-4句话即可）
• 永久个人电子邮箱（非学校官方邮箱）
• 你从哪个渠道听说此次征文比赛

如果您还有其他问题，请咨询 [email protected] 或关注 中国焦点 官方领英。

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St. Gallen Global Essay Competition 2024: win a share of CHF 20,000,-

Deadline: February 1, 2024 00:00 GMT-1200 [Oops, the opportunity has already expired. Sign up to AlphaGamma weekly newsletters to stay ahead of the game] | Apply now Dates: May 2-3, 2024 Eligibility: students enrolled in a master’s or higher program, born in 1994 or later.

St. Gallen Global Essay Competition 2024

Compete in the Global Essay Competition and qualify for participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world’s premier opportunity for cross-generational debates: The St. Gallen Symposium.

Participate in the St. Gallen Symposium

The St. Gallen Symposium is a two-day conference taking place at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland in May.

Meet 300 of society’s brightest young minds. Present and debate your ideas with 600 senior leaders. Be inspired by some of the world’s most impressive speakers.

Become a member of a unique global community. Win prize money of CHF 20,000 split amongst the three winners.

Gain a unique and new perspective on this year’s topic

This year’s Global Essay Competition invites young leaders worldwide to focus on a specific contemporary or future challenge related to scarcity and propose an innovative way to address it.

Striving for more or thriving with less – What pressing scarcity do you see, and how do you suggest to tackle it?

Scarcity generally refers to a situation where human needs exceed available resources. Be creative in thinking about proposed solutions: do we need to strive for more and find ways to boost the availability of the resource in question? Or does it focus on ways to thrive with less and thus rethink our needs and demand?

Be free in choosing which scarce resource you focus on: examples include – but are NOT limited to – human labour, capital, natural resources, or intangibles like time, creativity, or care. Be bold and precise in describing a contemporary or future challenge of scarcity and the specific kind of resources you focus on, and offer a concrete and actionable idea of how we should confront it.

Interested in applying for the St. Gallen Global Essay Competition 2024? Register your participation by following the  application link  and taking the suggested steps.

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Global MBA essay competition explores Covid-19 challenges

• Monday, January 4, 2021
• Global Part-time MBA

The Global MBA programme recently held a competition for students to show off their writing skills. The students competed with each other by submitting an essay about the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on any aspect of business and management. There were more than 90 entries and a panel of judges made up of the MBA Programmes Director, Head of Global MBA Student Support and Assistant MBA Director chose the winning piece.

The winner of this competition was Christian Fell who is Senior Manager at Mazars based in United Kingdom. The panel said, “The essay was insightful and very well written. We really enjoyed it and are sure other students will also enjoy reading it too.”

Read the winning essay below: 

Covid 19 – the final nail in Friedman’s profits over purpose?

“Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull,” noted Salman Rushdie in 1988, a statement which could easily be applied to the situation a plethora of organisations currently find themselves in, as corporate values are extinguished by revelations of contradictory behaviours. Take Boohoo plc, for example, a business exalted for its performance through much of the lockdown period. “Boohoo and its understanding of target audience helps it to weather lockdown’ proclaimed City AM editor, Stephan Shakespeare, on May 6th in recognition of its achievements. Yet, two months later, Jessi Baker MBE, writing for the same publication under the headline ‘The Boohoo scandal shouldn’t shock anyone — modern slavery is a pandemic’, remonstrated Boohoo for unethical behaviours as their share price tumbled and previously loyal customers raised eyebrows.

Perhaps an adapted version of Rushdie’s famed quote could read, ‘marketing beneath branding until suddenly the bare values of the organisation’. And it is values, which jobseekers, particularly those from ‘generation y’ and ‘z’ are paying more attention to than ever before. The pandemic period has unmasked the chasm between claims made on corporate websites and the reality of corporate social responsibility commitments in organisations across all sectors. Friedman’s argument that the ‘social responsibility of a business was to increase profits’, a doctrine widely circulated in business schools in the subsequent decades, is under more scrutiny than ever before. The pandemic period, an accelerant for many things, has created a need for many organisations to radically transform their business strategies and, in doing so, justify their existence. The pandemic, a catalyst for remote working, adoption of virtual meetings and the word ‘furlough’, has also contributed to opening Pandora’s box on socio-economic inequality, systemic racism and climate change implications. This is a box which, now ajar, must continue to be fully opened.

The surprise arrival of a pandemic forced organisations to react instantaneously to ensure business viability. Critical decisions, made post the Downing Street announcements, were debated in boardrooms up and down the country, revenue projections revised, costs retrenched. Corporate leaders, much like a retired boxer under attack, allowed instincts to prevail. For many organisations, particularly those that dominate our FTSE markets, instincts mean doing what they always have done. Boohoo plc, for instance, re-engineered their product line and green-lit production. In many ways, they did what they always had, and they had always done it so well. Yet their failure to provide a safe environment for employees has invited speculation and inquest, ultimately devaluing the business through reputational damage. Profit, an indulgent social media page and celebrity endorsements are all fine but if the other side of the scales hold life and the environment, I’m certain which side of the argument I want to succeed.

Reports are starting to uncover maladaptive use of the UK government endorsed furlough scheme, which, as the country battles through a recession, will prove difficult news to swallow for those who are facing a long struggle back to stable ground. These revelations of malpractice will undoubtedly leave a long shadow on accused firms’ reputation, hampering their long-term sustainability. Consumers hold more power than ever before as organisations traverse an increasingly competitive landscape with tightened purse-strings intensifying customer acquisition. This presents the consumer with an opportunity to influence the behaviours of the organisations attempting to entice them into spending their hard earned, possibly dwindling, cash reserves. This is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Vote with your feet, with your wallets, with your one click payments. Hold businesses accountable. You don’t like the way they source their products? Fine. Don’t shop there. Shocked by their inaction on diversity? Excellent. Bank somewhere else.

If we are to create a commercial backdrop where purpose does trump profit, then we need to let organisations know that we won’t be tricked, idle or happy to forgive in exchange for a discount.

If Friedman is to be proved wrong, we must place more value on values. The corporate world can, if they choose to do so, play a leading role in tackling some of societies biggest issues, whether that be through developments in sustainable finance, advancements in equality or influencing the future of climate action. The pandemic has created a platform for corporate social responsibility to evolve into a primary function of an organisation, shedding the ‘nice to have’ image and planting its place firmly at the executive table.

Finally, Friedman was also quoted as saying ‘one of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results’. Corporate world, we’re watching.

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Japan Center’s 19th Annual Essay Competition: Exploring Unique Ideas and Emerging Identities at the Intersection of Cultures

On April 20, the Japan Center of Stony Brook University (JCSB) held an awards ceremony for its 19th Annual Essay Competition, sponsored by Canon U.S.A. JCSB President Iwao Ojima made introductory remarks, followed by greetings from two distinguished guests, Isao Kobayashi, president and CEO of Canon U.S.A., and Kazuya Mori, director of the Japan Information Center and the deputy consul general at the Consulate General of Japan in New York.

The winner of the First Place Best Essay Award in the High School Division was Talia Beck for her essay, “Reflections.” She also received the Consul General of Japan Special Award for this essay. Beck is a senior at Hunter College High School, who aspires to pursue a degree in math and data science. Her grandmother, born and raised in Japan, adopted an American lifestyle and spoke only English after immigrating to the U.S. Beck’s mother, however, embraced her Japanese heritage and frequently introduced her to Japanese culture.

Beck, who is a quarter Japanese, struggled with her Japanese identity, as she does not look Asian. In her essay, she wrote about her experience when she visited Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms with her mother and grandmother. She saw the infinite reflections of three generations, her grandmother, her mother and herself. However, no matter how hard she tried to connect the dots among their numerous reflections, the distance between them seemed only to stretch further. This surreal visual experience led her to the realization that identity is a search, and she must continue striving to find it.

Beck’s experience with infinite reflections successfully symbolizes the emotional struggles that Asian Americans face as they grow up. Chief Judge Sachiko Murata commented that one’s cultural identity does not arise from outward forms but rather from within oneself. She emphasized that individuals must think deeply about why they think the way they do to discover their cultural identity.

The goal of the JCSB essay competition is to celebrate diverse cultures and promote inclusion by offering young Americans the opportunity to think creatively and critically about their lives, broaden their horizons, and develop global citizenship. This aligns with the corporate philosophy of Canon U.S.A. — Kyosei , which means “all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future.”

For this annual essay competition, contestants write, in English, one or more aspects of Japan, including art, culture, tradition, values, philosophy, history, society, politics, business, and technology, in relation to their personal views, experiences, and/or future goals. They do not need to have any experience in visiting Japan or studying Japanese.

For more information, visit the Japan Center at Stony Brook website .

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• David Tonjes Recognized for Efforts in Improving Recycling April 24, 2024
• Japan Center’s 19th Annual Essay Competition: Exploring Unique Ideas and Emerging Identities at the Intersection of Cultures April 24, 2024
• Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps Continues Its Legacy April 23, 2024
• Four SBU Programs Share Offshore Wind Training and Workforce Development Grants April 23, 2024
• SBUH Recognized for Commitment to Decarbonization to Achieve Climate Resilience April 23, 2024
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