The Robinson College Essay Prize is open to all students currently in Year 12 (Lower Sixth, or equivalent) at a UK School. It is designed to give students the opportunity to develop and showcase their independent study and writing skills. By creating the opportunity for students to experience the type of work that they might be expected to do at Cambridge, we hope to encourage inquisitive and industrious students from all backgrounds to apply to the university – and hopefully to Robinson College.

We welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects. Entrants are invited to submit a response to any one of the questions below, which should be no longer than 2,000 words (including footnotes and captions).  The questions may be discussed with reference to any academic discipline or area of interest. All sources must be appropriately acknowledged and cited, and a bibliography (including websites consulted) should be attached, although this is excluded from the word count. Up to three entries may be submitted per school, so please discuss your application with your school prior to entry.

There are many angles from which to approach the questions and we encourage applicants to ‘think outside the box’ and answer through the lens of a field or subject that greatly interests you.  Good essays will present a clear and concise argument using specific examples, but beyond this there is scope to interrogate the questions in any way you please.

Three prizes will be awarded, each person receiving book tokens to the value of £100. Further essays will be commended for their high quality. Winning and highly commended entrants will be invited to the College for a prize-giving ceremony and celebratory lunch with fellows and Directors of Studies at the college.

The deadline for submission of essays is 5pm, Friday 17^th August. All entries should be sent via the online submission form below where you will be asked to upload a pdf/ word document of your essay and your completed covering sheet. The covering sheet can be found below –  Please ensure that your school/ college representative completes the appropriate section. Entries will not be valid without this information.

Full rules, terms and conditions and the questions can be found here.

Here’s your chance to win £500 courtesy of LexisNexis Legal & Professional, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory and business information and analytics that help customers increase productivity, improve decision-making and outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world.

Fancy winning £500 to put towards your law training course? Then we have the competition for you!

The Lawyer Portal and LexisNexis Legal & Professional have come together to celebrate the 200th year anniversary of LexisNexis by giving away £500 to one lucky winner!

How to Enter:

Your entry should answer the following question:

‘How would you advance the rule of law in your country?’

To enter, you must:

• Record a video, up to 4 minutes in length*, of you answering the question;
• Upload the video to social media, tagging us in it @thelawyerportal and using the hashtag #TLPLexisNexisCompetition
  OR
  Upload the video to YouTube, and email the YouTube link to us at info@thelawyerportal.com.

* Don’t worry if your video is under 4 minutes – this will have no bearing on your entry as the length of video does not determine the quality of the submission.

How Will the Competition Be Judged?

Entries will be judged by a small panel consisting of leading legal figures at The Lawyer Portal and LexisNexis.

Tips for Getting Started:

• Wondering what we mean by the ‘rule of law’? Take a look at this guide by LexisNexis;
• You can take a look at The Rule of Law Impact Tracker to inspire you with some preliminary ideas;
• Start by brainstorming some potential ways you personally would advance the rule of law in your country and why;
• Use the time to voice your concerns and suggest a possible solution.

You can find out more details including terms and conditions here.

KEBLE COLLEGE ESSAY COMPETITION
IN THEOLOGY & RELIGION 2018

Keble College, one of the colleges of the University of Oxford, is running an essay competition to encourage more interest in Theology & Religion in schools, and to offer an opportunity for students to consider in more depth questions of contemporary and historical significance. We are looking for essays which are carefully researched, well-structured and well-presented, but which also reflect critical awareness and an ability to reason through an argument.

How to enter:
School students between 16 and 18 years old are invited to submit an essay of up to 1,500 words (excluding references) on ONE of the questions given. The essay judged best by a panel of Keble College theologians will receive a cash prize of £300. Smaller prizes will be awarded to runners-up. The top 30 entrants (including prize-winners) will also be invited to an event at Keble College Wednesday 27th June, which will include lunch in Hall, an Awards Ceremony and a Religion & Theology themed college tour. They will also be invited to stay overnight at Keble College in order to participate in the main Oxford Open Day the following day (Thursday 28th June 2018).

Essays can be submitted as an email attachment to nicole.boothman@keble.ox.ac.uk or if necessary, by post (word-processed and printed) to College Office, Keble College, Oxford, OX1 3PG. The essay must be accompanied by a completed entry form.
The deadline for essays is Tuesday 5th June 2018.

Click here for the questions and entry form.

Each year, we look for bright and talented Year 11 and Year 12 (Pre-IB and IB1) students to enter our annual science competition. 

The 2018 Science Prize competition is now OPEN; The closing date for entries is midday on Friday 4th May.

See here for the Science Prize competition poster.

This year’s categories are:

• • Biomedical Sciences

• • Chemistry

• • Medicine

Chemistry Question: Click here for essential further information

Biomedical Sciences and Medicine Questions: Click here for essential further information

Click here for more details and to submit your entry.

Studyportals.com, whose Bachelor’s Portal you can find here, are offering one lucky student the opportunity to have lunch with their CEO at their Headquarters in Eindhoven. You can enter by filling out the online form here – the deadline is Saturday 31 March. It also includes the opportunity to slide down their built-in slide, if that appeals to you.

The Oxford Scientist is proud to announce our first ever Schools Science Writing Competition, in collaboration with Oxford Sparks.

Calling all budding science writers in UK schools!

• Are you currently a school, sixth form or college student in the UK in Year 10, Year 11 or Year 12 (or equivalent)?

• Are you fascinated by science and want to communicate it to those around you?

• Would you like to see your work published in the next issue of The Oxford Scientist AND win a £50 Amazon voucher?

If you answered YES to all of the above, then all you need to do is write a 700-word article about a “scientific discovery” of your choice* by 27^th April 2018. There are no right or wrong topic choices, so your article could discuss anything from early scientific discoveries such as Darwin’s theory of evolution, to more recent scientific discoveries such as the observation of gravitational waves.

* You may interpret the meaning of “scientific discovery” as broadly as you wish, and this can include all fields of science, not just chemistry, biology and physics.

Once you have written your article, you can

UPLOAD IT HERE

Articles must be submitted by 27^th April 2018.

Articles will be judged by our panel of experts, and the winning article will be published in the next issue of The Oxford Scientist. The winning entrant will also receive a £50 Amazon voucher, sponsored by Oxford Sparks. The runners-up will have their articles featured on our website.

If you have any questions about the competition, please email competition@oxsci.org.

If your school, sixth form or college would like to subscribe to The Oxford Scientist for just £15 per year, please contact editor@oxsci.org.

Sociology Photo Competition 2018

It’s back! Last year the Department of Sociology launched a new Photo Competition aimed at students in Year 10, 11 and 12.

The theme of this year’s competition is ‘Global Sociology’ and students are invited to send ONE photo, a caption and an explanatory paragraph that explains how the photo relates to Global Sociology.

The winning student will receive £250 for themselves and £250 for their school. The Department will also host the student and a teacher on a visit to the University and the winning photo will be displayed on the Department of Sociology website.

Interested students should submit their photograph alongside an appropriate caption and paragraph to explain the thoughts and reasoning behind the photograph, before the 20th April 2018, to photocompetition@sociology.cam.uk

The competition will be judged by a panel of Sociology Lecturers from the University of Cambridge and results will be announced by the end of May 2018. The judges will be assessing the photos and accompanying text on their adherence to the theme, originality and creativity.

The rules:

• Entry is limited to one photograph per person.
• Students must ‘CC’ in their teacher when entering their photograph to the competition.
• The photographs may be used in a selection of marketing and publicity material (referencing the student) unless otherwise indicated by the student.
• Photographs emailed after 20^th April will not be considered by the Department for this competition.
• The judge’s decision is final. If there is more than one top ranked photo, the prize will be split equally.
• If you are intending to include a person or people in your photograph, please ensure they have granted you their permission for their photograph to be used in the competition.

Full details here.