This year the LSE UPR launched its inaugural essay competition, aimed at incoming or outgoing year 12s and 13s (or equivalent), to give them real experience in writing an academic essay.
Our team put together a list of five questions, which were superbly tackled by over 75 students.
- Is war and conflict an inevitable feature of global politics?
- Thomas Jefferson once said “the cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate”. With the rise of fake news, historically low voter turnouts, and populist angst, to what extent is Jefferson correct regarding democracy in the twenty-first century?
- What are the effects of the rise of China on the present world order?
- Has Brexit fundamentally changed the traditional voting patterns of the British electorate?
- You have been hired as a policy consultant by 10 Downing Street to develop one policy. What policy would you implement, and why? Explain the reasoning behind your choice, keeping policy choice and explanation clear. One example for this question would be: choosing to raise the minimum wage, and justifying this politically, socially and economically.
These questions required engagement with current affairs, critical reading, academic referencing and analytical writing – all of which was given an incredibly good effort by those who submitted.
After careful reading by our team of associate editors, we arrived at this year’s winners:
First place: Gabriel Brown – question two.
Second place: Dheevesh Mungroo – question one
Third place: Joseph McGrath – question three.
Over the coming weeks we will be posting all three pieces as a showcase of great pre-university academic research!
We would also like to offer our further congratulations to all who participated. The hard work and effort put into all submissions was clear to the whole UPR Team.
Highly commended
Anna Monro
Anya Lonergan
Callum Parris
Chang Lee
Edward Polley
Faye Thompson
Frankie Romer
Harjyot Anand
Harriet Rimell
Iqra Jan
James Lenton
Lara Blackett
Lily Young
Mia Bowles
Tom Clemmet
Yasemin Senai
Yu Na Choi
Further entries
Aaron Stevens
Adam Stowe
Amogh Patil
Andrew Irungu
Anna McAlinden
Arjun Pai
Billy Pearson
Billy Hohnen-Ford
Bonnie Liang
Brian Byrne
Charlotte Earl
Chloe Warman
Constantin Seibt
Daniel Riches
Danish Arora
Dheevesh Mungroo
Ella Grant
Frederick Alldridge
Gabriel Brown
George Cook
Hannah Riley
Isabel Weston
Jacob Scalco
Jamie Mathieson
Jamie Greenfield
Freddie Hill
Jess Burkes
Joseph Garcia Ben
Joseph McGrath
Joshua Maisey
Kaylin Plant
Kripa Shah
Maria Rotaru
Martina Piras
Milad Sherzad
Muaaz Atta
Nathan Barnard
Nathan Barnard
Neha Yadav
Nicholas-Alan McCoy
Niralee Shah
Peter Spoerri
Pramann Mahboobani
Pruksara Phumimuang
Qifeng He
Rachael Bondzie
Rachel Murray
Rebecca Kidd
Richard Briggs
Ross Sinclair
Sam Shulman
Samuel Rodgers
Shumraze Fawad
Tabitha Boyton
Tetiana Toma
Tharun Thiruseelan
Thomas Whittingham
Tim Hannon
Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with opportunities to engage with academic research.
The UPR team would also like to extend an invitation for all to attend our 2018 Conference, taking place on November 22nd, 6.30-8.30 at LSE.
