We are delighted to announce the 2024 edition of our annual essay prize. We run parallel prizes for secondary school pupils and undergraduate university students, both of which are judged by a prestigious expert panel.
The winners of each prize are sent a £50 book voucher and are invited to publish their essays on the SES blog.
Deadline and Submission
Submit to fraser.mcmillan@ed.ac.uk by the revised deadline of Sunday 3rd of November (23:59) with subject line “SES Essay Prize”. Note the competition was postponed due to the UK General Election being called shortly after the original announcement of the prize.
Essay Guidelines
Secondary Schools
1,500 words maximum discussing Scottish politics. This includes voting, elections and referendums, political parties or democratic reform.
Undergraduates
3,000 words maximum analysing voting in Scotland, the UK as a whole or its other nations and territories. This includes Westminster, devolved or local elections or referendums. The essay must make use of data derived from the Scottish Election Study, the Welsh Election Study, the Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study, the British Election Study, the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey or a similar source of information about public opinion.
Judging Panel
Secondary Schools Prize
– Baron Purvis of Tweed (House of Lords Peer)
– Dr. Coree Brown Swan (Lecturer, University of Stirling)
– Conor Matchett (Political Editor, The Scottish Sun)
Undergraduate Prize
– Prof. Kezia Dugdale (University of Glasgow)
– Mark Diffley (Founder and Director, Diffley Partnership)
– Ema Sabljak (Data Journalist, DC Thomson)