John Locke Essay Competition: Topics, Deadlines, & Previous Winners

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The John Locke Institute has always inspired young people to cultivate their character. They have consistently transformed talented students with exceptional minds into accomplished writers.  

They have prepared them in a way that enables them to think independently, employ clear reasoning, analyze topics effectively, and develop a persuasive writing style. 

The John Locke Institute has initiated the John Locke Essay Competition to explore a wide range of interesting questions and challenges that extend beyond the school’s definitive curriculum. 

What is the John Locke Essay Competition?

John Locke Essay Competition is an independent competition hosted by the John Locke Institute in Oxford, UK.  

The institute has hosted over 34,000 contestants from around the world every year. Every yeat they release a ser of new essay questions to make the students think critically and spack intellectual curiosity. 

Entering an essay competition, like this one, and the Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition can build knowledge and refine argumentation skills. This is an exceptional opportunity for students to have their work reviewed by experts. 

The panel comprises senior academics from leading universities, such as Princeton and Oxford, under the leadership of Prof. Terence Kealey, the Chairman of Examiners. 

There are seven subject categories in this essay competition: Philosophy, Economics, Psychology, Politics, Theology, History, and Law. The panel chooses the winner of the Grand Prize for the best essay in any subject.  

Important Dates For The Competition in 2025

The timeline for the John Locke Essay Competition 2025 shares a similar outline to 2024, but with some small adjustments: 

1. Registration opens on April 1, 2025. 

2. Registration ends on April 31, 2025. 

3. The submission deadline is June 30, 2025. 

4. They will send the shortlist notification on July 31, 2025. 

5. The academic conference will take place from October 3 to 5, 2025. 

6. The awards dinner will be on October 4, 2025. 

Late Entries 

If for any circumstances, you miss the submission date, there is an option for late entries. However, there are two conditions for that: 

1. You have to submit the essay by July 7, 2025, for the 7-day extended deadline before 11.59 pm BST or July 21, 2025, for the 21-day extended deadline. 

2. For the 7-day extension, a late entry fee of £ 25 is applicable, and for the 21-day extension period, a late entry fee of £ 75 is payable. Additionally, this amount must be paid within the next 24 hours of missing the deadline. 

Registration & Submission 

You have to go to https://essaycompetition.johnlocke.com/ and enter your email address. And then follow the steps mentioned, and you will be registered for the competition. 

You have to pick just one question for your chosen category, and you have to ensure that you stay under the 2,000-word limit, which is the limit for the essay. 

The filenames have a format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf. For instance, Lucy-Grey-Law-5.pdf. You must follow this file-naming format, or your essay will be rejected. 

Your name should not be inside the document. Also, you should not be adding any footnotes. Instead of that, you can add an endnote or a bibliography mentioning everything about the sources. 

Moreover, you as a candidate will have to provide the email address of any academic referee who knows about your academic work. This could be your school teacher or any other responsible person who is not a family member. 

Award Details 

There are prizes for the best essays in all categories. Every category winner gets $5,000 as a scholarship for any of the John Locke Institute programmes.  

The first runner-up winner wins $2,000, and the second runner-up winner wins $1,000. All winners will receive their prizes at the prize-giving ceremony in London on October 4, 2025.  

Moreover, the winners and runners-up will have the opportunity to meet some of the faculty members and judges from the Institute. You are also welcome to bring your family, friends, and teachers. 

The candidate winning the overall best essay will receive a John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, along with a $10,000 scholarship for attending additional summer schools or scholarship programs. 

Eligibility Criteria

Students from all over the world, who are 18 or above or younger before the submission date, are eligible to enroll for the John Locke Essay Competition. Moreover, there is a junior category for candidates who are 14 or below on the date of the submission deadline. 

Question For All The Categories in 2025

Anyone interested in the humanities and social sciences can participate in this competition. You must first select a category, then choose one question from that category. Here are the questions set for every category in 2025. 

Philosophy 

The questions set for the Philosophy category are mentioned below: 

1. What moral obligations do we owe to living persons that we do not owe to future persons? What are the implications of your answer for policy-making? 

2. Should we treat non-human animals well because they have rights, interests, neither, or both? 

3. “When civilians are the main target, there’s no need to consider the cause. That’s terrorism; it’s evil.” Is this correct? 

Economics

The questions set for the Economics category are mentioned below: 

1. What kinds of behaviour are engendered by the hope of profit? Is such behaviour better or worse, on balance, than the behaviour we should expect if all enterprises were owned by charities or governments? 

2. What will be the effect on socio-economic mobility of the UK government’s plan to impose value-added tax on school fees? 

3. Should Oxford lower its admissions standards for the sons and daughters of generous benefactors? 

Psychology

The questions set for the Psychology category are mentioned below: 

1. Is objectivity all in the mind? 

2. Eleanor Roosevelt declared, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Is she right? 

3. What is self-deceit? 

Politics 

The questions set for the Politics category are mentioned below: 

1. Should politicians ever be punished for lying? 

2. David Hume celebrated the wisdom of “unlettered men”. In a democracy, do the votes of the unlettered tend to protect a country against the bad ideas of the lettered, or do the votes of the lettered tend to protect a country against the bad ideas of the unlettered? 

3. Diversity is fashionable, but is it valuable? 

Theology 

The questions set for the Theology category are mentioned below: 

1. Is atheism implausible? 

2. Why would the creator of a trillion galaxies become angry if you have sex with your boyfriend or eat bacon for breakfast? 

3. Why pray? 

History

The questions set for the History category are mentioned below: 

1. According to Bertrand Russell, “Hitler is an outcome of Rousseau; Roosevelt and Churchill of Locke.” To what extent was he correct? 

2. Should anyone be ashamed of their nation’s history? Should anyone be proud of it? 

3. Which figure in history did most to enlarge human freedom? 

Law  

The questions set for the Law category are mentioned below: 

1. What injury should one person be permitted to inflict on another in the defence of private property? 

2. “Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping?” Should the law treat offenders better than they deserve? 

3. Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal? 

Junior Prize 

The questions set for the Junior Prize category are mentioned below: 

1. Your citizenship at birth was chosen for you. Which citizenship would you have chosen? 

2. Do you benefit more from your own freedom of speech or from other people’s? 

3. Who is more powerful – Donald Trump or Elon Musk? 

4. Since 1920, twenty-one presidents and prime ministers from nine countries have been graduates of Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) at Oxford. Would it have been better if they had studied history? 

5. What is your fair share of what someone else has earned? 

6. Why do you continue to use your smartphone more than is good for you? 

7. Why do people become more boring as they grow up and grow older? 

List of Winners From Previous Years 

It is no easy task to rise to the top of the competition with so many talented candidates from every corner of the world participating. Here is a list of all the winners from the past three years who have proven their abilities and skills, securing their place. 

2024

Grand Prize Winner: Kan Zhang, BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, China 

Philosophy:  

🏆 1st Place: Kan Zhang, BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, China 

🏆 2nd Place: Olivia Kang, Davidson Academy Online, USA 

🏆 3rd Place: Mihyeon Lee, North Raleigh Christian Academy, USA 

Politics: 

🎖 1st Place: Xinen Han, The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, China 

🎖 2nd Place: Marcell Pap, V. kerületi Eötvös József Gimnázium, Hungary 

🎖 3rd Place: Yijun Zhou, HD Shanghai School, China 

Economics: 

🏆 1st Place: Yuhao Liu 

🏆 2nd Place: Audrey Kuk, St Hilda’s School, Australia 

🏆 3rd Place: Jiankai Zhao, Raffles Institution, Singapore 

History: 

🎖 1st Place: Maximus Sherwood, BHASVIC, UK 

🎖 2nd Place: Zack Lam, Richard Montgomery High School, USA 

🎖 3rd Place: Max Collison, Winchester College, UK 

Law: 

🏆 1st Place: Olivia Wei, Saint Cuthbert’s College, New Zealand 

🏆 2nd Place: Maner Wen, Tianjin Yinghua Experimental School, China  

🏆 3rd Place: George Morrison, Eton College, UK 

Psychology: 

🎖 1st Place: Jingyi Cheng, The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, China 

🎖2nd Place: Johnny Yi, BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, China 

🎖 3rd Place: Sreyaa Sunjay, King Edward’s VI Camp Hill School for Girls, UK 

Theology: 

🏆 1st Place: Alex Wang, Cranbrook Kingswood, USA 

🏆 2nd Place: Ruoxiao Wang, Minhang Crosspoint Middle School, China 

🏆 3rd Place: Caroline Tong, AP Homeschoolers Online Classes, USA 

Junior Prize: 

🎖 1st Place: Philip Taxiarchis, Westminster School, UK 

🎖 2nd Place: Doria Chen, Tanglin Trust School, Singapore 

🎖 3rd Place: Ihsan Iftikar, The Greenwich Country Day School, USA 

2023 

Grand Prize Winner: Hosei Kishida, Shanghai American School, China 

Philosophy:  

🏆 1st Place: Hosei Kishida, Shanghai American School, China 

🏆 2nd Place: Amanda Sun, Princeton High School, USA 

🏆 3rd Place: Qianyu Lin, Raffles Institution, Singapore 

Politics: 

🎖 1st Place: William Zhou, Hunter College High School, USA 

🎖 2nd Place: Ziyi Wei, Westridge School for Girls, USA 

🎖 3rd Place: Xiaoya Du, The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, China 

Economics: 

🏆 1st Place: Kit Young Tham, Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore 

🏆 2nd Place: Kevin Hao, Knox Grammar School, Australia 

🏆 3rd Place: Zhong Yang M. Yeh, Shanghai High School International Division, China 

History: 

🎖 1st Place: Yoo Jin Cho, Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Australia 

🎖 2nd Place: Hannah Fareed, Karachi Grammar School, Pakistan 

🎖 3rd Place: Quynh Anh La Le, Saigon South International School, Vietnam 

Law: 

🏆 1st Place: Youran Wu, Nanjing Foreign Language School, British Columbia Academy, China 

🏆 2nd Place: Kayson Hu, Reddam House Sydney, Australia 

🏆 3rd Place: Lucienne Keyoung, Manhasset High School, USA , Esme Vallois-Davies, Colchester Royal Grammar School, UK 

Psychology: 

🎖 1st Place: Claire Yura Kim, Berkshire School, USA 

🎖 2nd Place: Arnav Pandey, The International School Bangalore, India 

🎖 3rd Place: Hannah Kim, La Canada High School, USA 

Theology: 

🏆 1st Place: Hanyu Li, High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, China 

🏆 2nd Place: Shivraj Sharma, Neerja Modi School, India 

🏆 3rd Place: Scarlet Strogov, South Orange Middle School, USA 

Junior Prize: 

🎖 1st Place: Xibei Kuang, Pinehurst School, New Zealand  

🎖 2nd Place: Alissa Song, Kambala, Australia  

🎖 3rd Place: Iris Zhu, Bement School, USA 

2022 

Grand Prize Winner: Benjamin Who, The Hotchkiss School, USA 

Philosophy:  

🏆 1st Place: Selena Teng, Millburn High School, USA 

🏆 2nd Place: Jinchuan Li, The Experimental High School attached to Beijing Normal University, China 

🏆 3rd Place: Vivian Li, Magdalen College School, UK 

Politics: 

🎖 1st Place: Pengzhe Lin, Cranbrook Schools, USA 

🎖 2nd Place: Brandon Ma, Living Word Shanghai Bilingual School, China 

🎖 3rd Place: Fengshuo Wang, Allendale Columbia School, USA 

Economics: 

🏆 1st Place: Benjamin Who, The Hotchkiss School, USA 

🏆 2nd Place: Ke Ren, Ulink Beijing, China 

🏆 3rd Place: Yixi Zhang, Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, China 

History: 

🎖 1st Place: Yifan Liu, Independent Schools Foundation, Hong Kong 

🎖 2nd Place: Xiaoyi Shi, Shanghai Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU, China 

🎖 3rd Place: Chenrui Dai, Ruian High School International Department, China 

Law: 

🏆 1st Place: Gabriel Stoney, Rugby School, UK 

🏆 2nd Place: Yifei Chen, Wuxi Big Bridge Academy, China 

🏆 3rd Place: Donghong Wei- Shenzhen College of International Education, China 

Psychology: 

🎖 1st Place: Shahmeer Bukhari, Karachi Grammar School, Pakistan 

🎖 2nd Place: Sujeong Park, North London Collegiate School Jeju, Republic of South Korea 

🎖 3rd Place: Samantha Shim, Phillips Academy, USA 

Theology: 

🏆 1st Place:  Jonathan Pan, The King’s School, Australia 

🏆 2nd Place: Xinyue Zhu, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, USA 

🏆 3rd Place: Chloe Huang, Westminster School, UK 

Junior Prize: 

🎖 1st Place: Cheuk Hei Chung, Chinese International School, Hong Kong 

🎖 2nd Place: Teresa Yan, PS/MS 219 Paul Klapper, USA 

🎖 3rd Place: Jianing Zhang, Veritas Christian Academy, USA 

Wrapping Up!

If you are preparing for the John Locke Essay Competition, make sure your essay has a strong beginning. Select the category where you can showcase your bold and creative side.  

Ensure you have conducted sufficient research on the topic you chose, but avoid overcomplicating it. Anyone reading the essay should be able to understand it from the beginning to the end and know what you want to say. Make your piece stand out.

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