2025 Mason Institute Essay Competition

For each of the undergraduate and postgraduate category, there will be a cash prize to the winning essays at the undergraduate and postgraduate level: £200 (Winner). The winners and runners-up (i.e. the top 3) in both categories will be published on the Mason Institute website. 

For the essay competition, you are invited to submit an essay, either newly written or previously written and submitted to one of your courses within the past academic year, that falls within the broad scope of the MI’s work on ethics and law at the interface between health, medicine and the life sciences at a national and global scale. You can read more about the MI’s work here. 

To be eligible to participate in the MI Essay Competition, you must be either:

• Currently enrolled as an undergraduate at a University, or
• Currently enrolled as a postgraduate (e.g. Masters or PhD student) at a university

Essays must be submitted through your institutional email account.

Please submit your essays via email to the Mason Institute administrator: Mason.Institute@ed.ac.uk

The essay should be accompanied with a cover note which clearly indicates: 

1. your name as the essay competition entrant;
2. the degree for which you are studying;
3. your institution; and
4. that the submitted essay is being entered into the competition either as part of the undergraduate or postgraduate essay category.

• All essays should be between 2,000 and 4,000 words, excluding essay title, cover note, and references/footnotes (note: the reference style is at your discretion)
• All essays must be written in English
• Submitted work must be single authored
• Essays should be submitted as Word (.docx) or PDF (.pdf) files
• You are allowed to submit to the competition one paper only in any given year

From the pool of submitted essays in each category, a shortlist of three candidates will be made based on an assessment by an academic panel (the MI Essay Panel). Both undergraduate and postgraduate essays will be judged on the level of knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the clarity and style of writing, critical analysis and quality of argumentation, relevance, persuasive force, and originality of approach. The potential to significantly expand, challenge, or critique existing approaches of the topic which might lead to rethinking of the issue shall be considered a merit. The winner for each category will be decided by the MI Essay Panel. The Panel’s decision will be final; any feedback or comments will be at the Panel’s discretion.

The MI Essay Panel will consist of up to four members of the Mason Institute Executive Committee. The Panel will strive to have a gender balance and reflect different disciplinary backgrounds.

Any and all questions regarding the competition may be sent to the Mason Institute Administrator: Mason.Institute@ed.ac.uk