AIIA Essay Competition

Heads Up! The AIIA ACT Branch is looking for bright students to compete in its first Student Essay Competition.

The AIIA ACT Branch’s Essay Competition is designed to encourage students enrolled at ACT universities to express their views in writing in order to promote a greater interest in and understanding of international affairs.

Two prizes will be offered.  A prize of $750 will be won by the best post graduate entry and a prize of $250 for the best undergraduate entry.  The winners will also be offered free membership of the ACT Branch of the AIIA for three years.  The runner up in each section will receive a Coop Bookstore voucher to the value of $100 and be offered one year’s membership of the ACT Branch of the AIIA.

Entry Criteria

Any full or part-time under-graduate or post-graduate student enrolled at an ACT university (ANU, UC, and the ACT campus of UNSW and the Australian Catholic University) is eligible to enter the competition.

Applicants may be of any nationality and do not have to be a member of the ACT or any other branch of the AIIA.

Undergraduate student entries will be of essays already assessed to a high standard by their home institution in any of the last three academic years.

Post graduate essays may be drawn from work submitted, or in progress, for their masters or Ph. D. degrees.

The Essays

• must be in English, original, and must not have been previously published
• will be between 2000 and 4000 words  (undergraduate entries may be at the shorter end of the spectrum) and may include photos and/or charts
• may be on any topic of international affairs, Australian foreign or trade policy comparative foreign policy,  or the implications for Australia’s foreign and domestic policies of such issues as migration, refugee movement, and climate change
• all essays entered must contain critical analysis; those competing for the post graduate prize should also include policy options.

Submission

Essays are to be typed and submitted electronically to the Administrative Assistant at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Timing of Submission

Essays must be submitted by Saturday the 31st of March for short listing by the Panel of Judges.

In the post-graduate section, Judges will select up to five finalists for workshopping at small AIIA roundtables in May and June 2012.

Following the Workshops, entrants may refine their entries for final submission by Thursday 20 July.

The winners will be announced at the AIIA ACT Branch AGM in August 2012.

Judging

The judging of essays will be undertaken by a panel of specialists in international affairs.

Publication

Winning essays will be posted on the ACT Branch website and, subject to agreement, in the AIIA Victorian Branch’s Access or AIIA National Office’s Emerging Scholars.

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