The Lord Wilson TWS Essay Prize

The Wilberforce Society is proud to announce the launch of its inaugural public policy essay competition, the Lord Wilson Essay Prize. Based at the University of Cambridge, The Wilberforce Society (TWS) is an independent, non-partisan student think tank and is the oldest of its kind in the UK. The competition is named after Lord Wilson of Dinton, the Society’s Chair of the Board of Patrons. Lord Wilson is a crossbencher in the House of Lords, a former Cabinet Secretary and a former Master of Emmanuel College.

The objectives of the competition are to promote discussion and interest in public policy issues among secondary school students and provide an opportunity to practice writing in the concise style of professional policy papers and memos. When much political discourse is surrounded by misinformation, emotional appeals, and short-term solutions, TWS aims to encourage pragmatic, insightful, and balanced debate.

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The competition is free to enter and open to all students who are resident in the UK and were aged 16-18 years old on the 10th of September 2025.

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Dates:

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Submissions will open on October 27th 2025 and close on January 12th 2026 at 23:59 GMT.

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Guidelines:

Students are asked to outline, analyse, and justify policy responses and recommendations to one of the topics below. The word limit for entries is 1,000 words, including any titles or sub-titles but not references and bibliography. 

Responses should look to include a background to the issue being addressed, an explanation of their policy solution, analysis of any complexities surrounding their proposals, and justification for why their proposal would effectively address the problem even with these complexities in mind. We do not necessarily expect you to develop a complete response to an entire issue; choosing to address a specific aspect or challenge is perfectly welcome.

Full references and bibliography must be provided. Students may use any citation style they wish.

Students may only submit a single essay and all submissions must be in English.

The use of generative AI in the ideation stages is perfectly welcome but is not allowed to be used in the writing of responses along with any kind of plagiarism. The essays must be written by only one person and be submitted by that person. Entries found to have broken these rules will not be considered by the judging panel. Entrants could be interviewed by the judgement panel in the case there were any suspicions of the rules not being respected.

Selection process:

Responses will be assessed based on the quality and control of prose, the strength of their justifications for their proposal, and their ability to demonstrate awareness of the challenges facing their proposal and the measures necessary to mitigate those challenges. 

The submitted essays will be judged by current members of the University of Cambridge, while the shortlisted essays will be read by Lord Wilson himself.

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All decisions by the judging panel on all matters to do with the running and judging of the competition will be final.

Prize:

All shortlisted entrants will receive a free invitation to our annual conference in March, held at the Cambridge Union. The winning entrant will also receive a £100 cash prize.

Questions:

1. In response to concerns over data privacy and national security, US policymakers have proposed banning the platform TikTok. 

Do you think the US should ban TikTok outright, regulate it through stricter privacy frameworks, or pursue an alternative policy solution? What might be the implications of such a decision on media regulation more broadly?

2. Many Western states, including the US and UK, have made significant cuts to their foreign aid expenditure, with experts raising concerns about worsening humanitarian conditions in parts of the Global South and a loss of Western soft power. 

What policies would you suggest for mitigating the downsides of these cuts and/or maximising the effectiveness of smaller aid budgets?

3. The National Health Service has continued to suffer from long hospital waiting times, with many hospitals struggling to meet the target for 92% of patients to be treated within 18 weeks of a referral. 

What policy recommendations would you put forward to help the NHS reach these targets?

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To submit your entry please fill out the following form. Thank you and good luck!

Should you have any questions, please ask anybody from the teaching body of your school to reach out to policy@wilberforcesociety.co.uk.