What is John Locke Essay Competition?

John Locke Global Essay Competition is organized by John Locke Institute, a prestigious independent educational organisation whose mission is to encourage the most brilliant students to be more academically ambitious and intellectually adventurous. Every year, they organize a global essay competition to embolden the best students to become good writers. The essay competition invites students to explore a wide range of subjects including Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law. The students will be provided with the opportunity to investigate interesting but challenging questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Why do I need to participate in John Locke Essay Competition?

Top universities in the UK and around the world welcome students with inquisitive attitudes, critical thinking, and knowledge. Entering the essay competition can build your knowledge in the field you are interested in and refine your skills of argumentation since you need to write the academic piece of work to convince the judges who are senior academics from the University of Oxford. The knowledge you learn during the preparation can be the prerequisite for your university courses, and more importantly, the research skills and persuasive writing skills will be essential for you when you start to work on your university coursework and write your essays and dissertation. Therefore, for those whose interests are in humanities and social science, this essay competition is one of your best chances to think independently, enrich your knowledge, reason in a clear way, analyse critically and write academically and persuasively. In a more practical sense, this experience will look great on your CV and Personal Statement when applying for top universities. The admission officers will know more about you, not only academic performance but also other qualities such as determination, perseverance, and time management.

All you need to know about John Locke Essay Competition:

1) Age: 18 years old or younger (Senior Group); 14 years old or younger (Junior Group) 

2) Submission Deadline: normally around late June 

3) Requirements: 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). 

4) Previous Questions (examples): 

Senior Group: 

• Q1. How would the education sector change if governments were no longer involved? (Economics) 

• Q2. What is slavery? Is jury duty? Is conscription? Is income tax? (Philosophy) 

• Q3. Discrimination on the basis of race is widely condemned, but on the basis of nationality it is widely accepted. Is it not odd that you may not discriminate against me for where my great-great-grandparents were born, but you may discriminate against me for where my parents were born? (Politics) 

• Q4. Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us? (History) 

• Q5. Who is responsible for my mental health? (Psychology) 

• Q6. Should ‘innocent until proven guilty’ apply not only to courts of law, but also to public censure? (Law) 

Junior Group: 

• Q1. Should we raise the voting age to 25? 

• Q2. Should the John Locke Institute change its name? 

• Q3. Is Oxford overrated? 

• Q4. Just because you’re a millionaire doesn’t mean you should get better healthcare than the rest of us, does it? 

• Q5. What should we do to improve the lives of poor people? 

• Q6. Have things improved? 

What Libra Education can offer you?

You may not have any clue where to start, you may not know how to break down questions and organise your thoughts in a logical way, or you may find it overwhelming to draft a well-thought essay to submit. We totally get these difficulties since it’s probably the first time you participate in this kind of essay competition. Hence, we are here to provide you with Group Courses specifically supporting you to write a presentable essay with good quality. In the coming February, we will organize Economic Course and Junior Prize Course to empower your essay writing. There will be 10 sessions every day during the Winter Break and our specialist mentors will guide you to narrow the scope of the question set, build and debate a reading list with your classmates, establish your own unique perspectives and essay structure and refine your ideas and support you with a perfectly drafted essay. Our specialist mentors have Oxbridge academic backgrounds and have extensive experience tutoring students with essay competitions. Students who were previously tutored by our specialist mentors have either been shortlisted or won the prizes in the competitions, and this experience has supported them to receive offers from top universities in the UK including Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, UCL, KCL, etc. Join our tailor-made group courses this Winter Holiday, you will meet your academic target as the starting point of your university application preparation journey.