Philosophy, History, Theology, Politics, Economics, Psychology, Law
The John Locke Institute is an independent educational organisation that works to embolden the best and brightest students to become more academically ambitious and more intellectually adventurous. The institute strives to nurture academic ambition. Past students have gone on to study at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, and Berkeley.
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. The 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 the competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of the essay prizes are judged by senior academics from the University of Oxford.
Seven subject categories of Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology, and Law. And one junior category.
Three questions are given in each of the categories, and 8 questions in the junior category.
Please visit the competition’s website for an overview of the questions.
Each essay should address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline, 30 June 2021. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline.)
Essay submitted online through the website.
The title of the pdf attachment should read SURNAME, First Name (e.g. POPHAM, Alexander).
June 30th, 2022: Submission deadline
July 14th, 2022: Short-listed candidates notified
(both estimated dates from 2021 dates)
Winner
Second Prize
Third Prize
High Commendations(multiple)
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.
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 gap year courses.