This year we will be running essay competitions in Ancient World and Classics, Archaeology, Economics, Land Economy, Medieval World and Slavonic Studies. Further particulars and this year's questions can be found at the links below. Please read the competition rules and submission guidelines carefully before entering a competition.

Submission guidelines

Anyone who wishes to enter an essay competition must complete the online form.

https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Ls6qUnODgHmulE

Submissions can be uploaded to the online form in a PDF format. If the file size is too big to upload to the form, please email your submission to essaycompetitions@fitz.cam.ac.uk. We can also accept entries by post. Please address postal submissions to: Schools Liaison Officer, Fitzwilliam College, Storey's Way, Cambridge, CB3 0DG.

Submissions to our essay competitions must be formatted using the template below. Alongside your essay, you must submit the completed production log. You must also fill out the declarations page, and have this signed by both yourself and a teacher, who we will contact if necessary. 

Competition rules

These essay competitions are exclusively for students in their penultimate year of education (Year 12 in England and Wales, S5 in Scotland, Year 13 in Northern Ireland). They are open to students in any country but submissions must be written in English.

Submissions should strictly adhere to the word limit set out in the subject brief (2000-2500 words for Archaeology, Classics & Ancient World, Land Economy, Slavonic Studies and Medieval World; no more than 1000 words for Economics), and contain a bibliography at the end. The word count should exclude the bibliography, but include any footnotes. Each page should be numbered and contain the applicant's full name. The word count should be included at the end of the essay. If you include any diagrams or tables in your essay, these will each count as 100 words.

We understand that not all students will have previous experience of writing a bibliography, and may not have equal access to advice on doing so. We therefore include this link to guidance on how to correctly use the Harvard referencing system. Anyone who wishes to use a different referencing system is free to do so.

Students are only permitted to enter one competition and may only submit one entry to that competition. There is a strict limit of five submissions per school for each competition. If more than five students from the same school enter the same competition, a teacher from that school will be contacted and asked to select the five entries; failure to do so will result in all submissions from the school to that competition being disqualified. Please note that this limit does not apply to Sixth Form Colleges where year groups are over 1000 students in size. When submitting an essay, the student will be asked to provide the name and email address of a teacher who may be contacted in order to verify the submission.

The submission must be entirely the individual student's work and must not be submitted or have been submitted to an exam board as part of any coursework or extended essay, either in part or in full.