Fitzwilliam College Essay Competitions

Fitzwilliam College is delighted to announce its 2023 Essay competitions. This year there will be essay competitions in Ancient World and Classics, Archaeology, History, Land Economy, and Medieval World. We will additionally be running an Architecture design competition, and a new essay competition in Economics for state-schooled UK students only.

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. We also recommend you visit the Fitzwilliam College website, to check details about each competition before submitting your entry.

• Ancient World and Classics
• Archaeology
• Economics (for state-school UK students only - please see link for details on eligibility)
• History
• Land Economy
• Medieval World
• Architecture – students wishing to enter the Architecture Design Competition may find this plan of Fitzwilliam College and information on the history of Fitzwilliam’s buildings useful

The deadline for all competitions is 6pm on Wednesday, 1 March.

Competition rules - full rules on Fitzwilliam College Website

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 (2500 words for Archaeology, Classics & Ancient World, History, Land Economy and Medieval World; 1500 words for Economics; 500 words for the Architecture narrative), 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.

Submission guidelines

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

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.