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The College Fellowship is excited to announce the launch of its 2025 essay competition. This is an opportunity for undergraduates and students currently in their sixth form, or final 2 years of IB, or equivalent qualifications, to demonstrate their ability to write a convincing and well-structured essay. Emphasis should be placed on a sound explanation of the selected themed title and well-reasoned arguments, drawing on relevant evidence. The Maximum length is 1500 words and entrants are advised to write as concisely as possible.
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Please choose one question to write about. Submissions are limited to one essay per person.
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1. While climate activists believe the environment must be prioritised many policymakers believe economic growth cannot be compromised. Can the two be aligned, or are the interests of the economy and the environment mutually exclusive?
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2. “Bitcoin will do to banks what email did to the postal industry.” Do you think this is true, or is the current boom just a speculative bubble?
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3. Should the West return cultural artifacts to their former colonial territories?
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4. What is the importance of ethics in data science?
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5. Will the legacy of Covid be an economically more unequal world?
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6. Should robots have rights? Why or why not?
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7. Is UBI (universal basic income) an effective poverty-reduction strategy for highly developed countries?
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8. Is democracy experiencing a setback worldwide?
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Writing your essay
Your essay should be written in grammatically correct English. Try to structure your essay in an orderly way; you should build up your argument gradually by collecting evidence over the course of the essay so that when you arrive at your conclusion, you will have made an effective case. At the same time, do not be afraid to explore the contradictions.
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In terms of references, you should cite all your sources along the way. Use the APA (Author, Date) style of citation in the text. (For example, “The persistence of high unemployment rates is mainly associated with rigidities in the labor markets (Bertola and Rogerson, 1997).”) You also have to provide a bibliography, where you list all your sources. Don’t worry too much about sticking to one citation format for this; spend your time writing your essay instead (although look to the APA format as a guide for this). Just make sure all the information needed to verify your sources is included.
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The limit is 1500 words (we will check!). Words in your bibliography and in any data tables do not count towards the limit, but everything else does. We put a word limit so you can focus on the most mportant aspects of tyour chosen topic. Do your best to provide strong, well-articulated insights with pertinent facts to back them up.
Finally, some notes on style:
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Include page numbers.
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On the first page, include the question, question number, your name, and your school.
Submitting
The deadline for submissions is EOD Friday, 17th of January 2025.
Before submitting, please convert your file to a PDF and change the file name to “[your name] Q[question number].pdf”. (For example, “Mia Smith Q4.pdf”.) Use the submission form on The College Fellowship website to submit your essay (see below). Please do not email it to us: we will not read it if you do!
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Judging
Winners and runners-up will be announced in May 2025.
Please also observe that by entering you agree to the terms and conditions listed below:
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Your submitted essay must be your work alone and any assistance given to you whilst writing your essay must be declared in your email.
- You cannot make any revisions to your essay once it has been submitted.
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Please note that you do not have to be studying in the UK to enter.
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Any personal data relating to entrants will be used solely for this competition and will not be disclosed to any third parties for any purpose without prior consent.
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The essay that is entered may not be entered into any other competition.
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The winner, runners up and those with shortlisted essays will be contacted via the email used to submit the essay. The College Fellowship cannot respond to questions about the decisions of the judges or requests for additional feedback on the submissions.
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The College Fellowship reserves the final right, where necessary, to make amendments to the above terms and conditions and to select the winners of the competition.
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