Competitions Update

Right, I've been keeping half an eye on my econ competition spreadsheet (still a bit of a hot mess, but it's ticking over) and I reckon it's a good moment for a round-up. Here's everything that's open for entries as I write this, plus a handful landing around the start of September that are worth diarising now before you forget (I say this as someone who has forgotten more deadlines than I'd like to admit). A quick plug for the Econ Teacher Calendar, which I typically update every Monday, where I put extra competition dates alongside CPD, student events etc. I usually also put competitions on this page, but a couple occasionally slip through the net, so worth keeping an eye on the calendar (or integrating it with your school calendar - instructions are below the calendar here)

Open now

King's Entrepreneurship Lab Essay Competition is the one I'd flag most urgently: it closes 5 August, so if any of your students fancy £1,500 for an essay on entrepreneurship and business challenges, they need to get moving now. Essay questions here.The Economics Olympiad registration form is live now. I heard good reports from this year’s events, so definitely worth looking into. Register here.

LSESU Economics Society Essay Competition closes 1 September. Students pick one of five questions set by LSE professors (this year covering work, monetary policy, AI, taxation and the green transition), max 1,500 words, free to enter. Registration and prompts here.

CSEP Essay Competition (Cambridge Society for Economic Pluralism) runs to 30 September, so there's a bit more breathing room on this one. Five pluralist economics questions to choose from (I liked the one on gentrification as a consequence of capitalism), free entry, 1,500 to 2,500 words. Details here.

Not economics-specific, but the Berggruen Prize (17 August, open topic, $50,000 on offer) is such a big number I think it's worth a mention even though the topic is genuinely free choice ("any aspect of the moment humanity finds itself in"), so don't expect it to map onto the spec. More here if you've got a strong writer after a stretch project. IEA Monetary Policy Essay Prize is probably the one to lead with. £1,500 for first prize in the sixth form category (£750 each for the two runners-up), deadline is 31 August, and it's specifically on monetary policy, so it's a lovely fit if you've just finished that unit. One catch: semi-finalists have to attend in person (semis are 19 October, finals 1 December), so it's not one for a student who can't get to London. Find the details here.

Young Entrepreneurs Challenge (Verizon and Unloc) closes 9 October. £10,000 plus mentorship for a tech-led idea addressing a sustainability problem, judged from a 60 to 90 second video. The eligibility is more generous than it sounds: the business only has to be "pre-start", meaning it hasn't started trading yet, so a student with a idea and nothing else behind it can still enter. Apply here.

Sheffield Business School's Financial Trading Competition isn't really a "competition" you enter online, it's a one-day trip to their Bloomberg Suite where students trade on real terminals. You book by emailing SCLO@shu.ac.uk, and slots run monthly from 9 September right through to next July, so there's no rush, but September is your first chance to get a date in. Booking info here.

ESU Schools' Mace has been running since 9 June and closes 16 September. It's the oldest schools debating competition in England and Wales (going since 1957, which I find quite charming), teams of up to 5, entry fee £65 to £75 (though there are subsidies for schools with high FSM or EAL numbers). Motions are topical and controversial rather than economics-specific, but there's usually at least one round with a trade, tax or market angle in it somewhere. More here. Marshall Society Essay Competition (Cambridge) doesn't have its 2026 date confirmed yet as far as I can find, but it's typically late August (last year it was 29 August), so treat that as your working deadline. Around 1,250 words on an economics, finance or political economy question, £100 first prize, and the winning essays get published in The Dismal Scientist, which is a nice carrot for a personal statement. Keep an eye on the page here.

Landing around September (get these in the diary)

GAIN (Girls Are Investors) Schools Investment Challenge is the one I'm most confident about: registration for the 2027 challenge opens in September and runs through to November, with the challenge itself starting in January. Teams of 3 to 5 girls or non-binary students get matched with a real company and industry mentors, free to enter, and there's a genuinely nice prize pot (£1,000 for the winning school). Registration will appear here.

Wharton Global High School Investment Competition technically opened for registration on 10 August, so it's not strictly a September thing, but the ten week case study period runs well into autumn, so it's still very much worth a September push with your Year 12s. Free, teams of 4 to 6. Here's the page.