Pragmat Summer Essay Competition 2024

This summer Pragmat is running its inaugural summer essay competition open exclusively to STATE SCHOOL students in Years 9-12 and registration is now open and the questions have been released!

The competition will open on June 21st at 12:00 BST, closing on August 2nd at 12:00 BST with entrants invited to answer one of 13 questions across the fields of Business, Economics, Politics and International Relations that will be released on June 21st.

Pragmat Student Essay Competition 2024

The competition will be separated into a Junior and Senior competition, the Junior for Years 9-10 and the Senior for Years 11-12. The prizes for the winners are unique to any other essay competition out there.

These include:

• 1-to-1 mentorship sessions with students studying an entrant’s dream course at one of the UK’s top universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and more,
• Conducting of interviews with notable figures such as CEO’s, diplomats and politicians or wherever the winner's main area of interest lies. You can read here one of our most recent interviews with Ahana Banerjee, a 24 year-old startup CEO.
• £50 book vouchers

Registration for the competition is now open using this link

We would really encourage all those potentially interested in studying these subjects at university to enter the competition as it would provide a great piece of evidence for your interests to showcase in a top university application.

Here are the questions!

1. With reference to a specific industry, how can AI enhance business productivity?
2. With two case-studies, explore how the COVID pandemic revolutionised small businesses.
3. What lessons can domestic governments learn about oversight and regulation of financial institutions after the 2008 financial crisis?
4. What is the welfare state and does its current form present more advantages than disadvantages?
5. To what extent is capitalism incompatible with solving the climate change crisis?
6. Analyse the effects of immigration on a nation's economy.
7. In what ways, if any, do intergovernmental organisations, like the UN or the IMF for example, fail non-Western countries?
8. Has the Russia-Ukraine war led to the decline or the re-establishment of the liberal international order?
9. Europe or America? Compare who has been the greatest culprit of neo-colonialism in the 21st century?
10. To what extent is ‘dollar imperialism’ a concern in the international community?
11. Are austerity programmes more of a political ploy than a genuine economic solution?
12. How can Hobbes’s reasoning for a Leviathan be challenged in modern politics?
13. “The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party.”- Tony Blair, 1993. How far do you agree with this statement?