National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics

The National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics is an annual competition held in the Spring. It is open to all Undergraduate and Post Graduate Students enrolled in UK universities.

Students are invited to enter by submitting an essay of up to 2000 words on any topic relevant to practical ethics.

Practical ethics is concerned with what we should do in any given situation. It reflects on personal, professional, policy, and social choices and structures and holds them up to scrutiny. It may balance or prioritise different values and interests.

Two undergraduate papers and two graduate papers will be shortlisted from those submitted to go forward to a public presentation and discussion, where the winner of each category will be selected.  

The winner from each category will receive a prize of £500, and the runner up £200. Revised versions of the two winning essays will be considered for publication in the Journal of Practical Ethics.

How to take part and T&Cs     See past winners

The competition is now closed for 2025, see below for the results!

L-R: Prof. Roger Crisp, Arjan Heir, Dr Hazem Zohny, Esther Braun, Elizabeth McCabe, Rahul Lakhanpaul, Dr Sanja Šćepanović

This year's Final was held in the Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne's College.  We had a great turnout for the event and the judges were very impressed by the quality of the presentations! 

During the final the four finalists presented their papers and ideas to an audience and responded to a short Q&A as the deciding round in the competition, and the winners are:

Undergraduate Winner

Rahul Lakhanpaul: Social Media, Epistemic Threats, and the Threat to Autonomy

Graduate Winner

Esther Braun: Are requests for assisted dying motivated by poverty autonomous?