The St Hugh’s College Sixth Form Essay Competitions are a fantastic opportunity to explore a topic of interest in a particular subject in more depth – whether something you have studied at school has inspired you, or whether you are keen to broaden your horizons in a new academic discipline.
This year, we are running two essay competitions; one on History, and one on Classical Reception. To find out more about this year’s competitions, please visit the individual prize webpages using the links below.
If you have a query about entering one of our competitions, please check the Frequently Asked Questions below in the first instance before contacting us over email. Please note that due to the volume of email queries we receive, we will only respond to those that are not already answered by the below information.
Frequently Asked Questions
In 2026, we are running the Julia Wood History Essay Competition, and the Mary Renault Classical Reception Essay Competition.
Please visit the individual prize webpages for further information and details on how to enter. Please read the instructions provided carefully before submitting your entry. Entries received via email will not be considered.
Yes, international students are welcome to enter our competitions.
To be eligible to enter, you must currently be studying at the equivalent level of the UK Sixth Form. In the UK, ‘Sixth Form’ refers to ‘Year 12’ and ‘Year 13’ – the final two years of school before university level study.
The terminology used to describe this varies country to country. It is your responsibility to check how your educational system corresponds to the UK system. We are not able to respond to individual queries on whether you are in the correct year group.
In the UK, ‘Sixth Form’ refers to the final two years of school before university level study. To enter our competitions, you must be studying at this level (regardless of the terminology used to describe this in your home country).
Please note that eligibility to enter our competitions does not depend on your age, but rather your educational level.
Yes, as a gap year student you are eligible to enter, provided that you have not yet undertaken any additional formal education beyond Sixth Form level.
Students who have already begun university level study are not eligible to enter.
No, students who are not yet studying at Sixth Form level are not eligible to enter. The competition runs from January-July and you must be in Year 12 or 13 (or international equivalent) or on a gap year during this period in order to enter.
We often receive enquiries from students who have just completed Year 11 around the time of the deadline (often referred to as ‘rising Year 12s’ or ‘rising juniors’) – such students will not yet be eligible to enter.
We are not able to make individual exceptions to this criterion.
The choice of topic for the Julia Wood and Mary Renault competitions is entirely up to you. We are not able to provide guidance or advice on the suitability of specific topics.
For the current competition round, the deadline for entering is 2pm (BST) on Wednesday 22nd July 2026.
You are strongly encouraged to complete your submission well in advance of this deadline, to ensure that you have time to request assistance in the event of any technical issues. We may not be able to respond to individual queries received too close to the deadline.
Entries received after the deadline will not be considered.
Essays should be between 2000 and 4000 words in length.
The word count includes:
- The main essay text
- Any material provided in footnotes which is additional commentary or content related to your essay
- Any image or figure captions
The word count does not include:
- The bibliography
- References or citations provided in footnotes (the authors, title, publication year, page numbers, etc.)
As with any piece of academic writing, entrants are expected to clearly reference any material used to support their arguments, providing full details of their sources. You are welcome to use whichever style of referencing you prefer. Please see the winning entries from previous years for examples of how to reference correctly using footnotes and a bibliography.
The bibliography is not included in the word count.
Any references or citations provided in footnotes* are not included in the word count.
*Please note that footnotes consisting of additional text relating to the content of your essay are included in the word count.
Yes, you may include images in your essay. If you use an image which is not your own, make sure to reference its source.
No, we are only able to accept essay entries written in English.
Yes, you are welcome to enter more than one of our competitions if you would like to.
The winners will be selected in August. All entrants will then be contacted via email and informed of the outcome of their entry. Subsequently, the names, schools, and essays of the winners and those who are highly commended will be published on our website. By entering, participants agree that they are willing for us to publish these details in this way, should their essay be selected.
Due to the number of entries we receive, we are unfortunately unable to provide feedback on individual essays.
No, the use of generative AI tools is not permitted. If the competition team believe that AI has been used in the writing of your essay, your entry will be disqualified.
