Libra Essay Prize 2026

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Libra Essay Prize 2026.

This year's cohort produced something striking. Across nine subject categories, students independently converged on three of the most consequential ideas in contemporary thought: voice — who holds it, who is silenced, and how it is constructed; fear — as a political instrument, a psychological force, and an economic signal; and legacy — colonial, intellectual, scientific, and cultural. No theme was prescribed. That three such coherent threads emerged across essays in History, Economics, Philosophy, Science, Law, English, Politics, Arts, and Mathematics speaks to the quality of intellectual instinct on display. The cohort average score was 90.1 out of 100.

The Winners

1st Place — Ela Begum Kumcuoglu | St Paul's Girls' School
How did the colonial British education system stifle the Indian colonial subject's voice?

2nd Place — Yik Chun Fong | Tonbridge School
Fear and Courage: The Hidden Price Mechanism of Modern Capitalism

3rd Place — Sam Warren | Sir John Deane's Sixth Form College, Northwich
The George Legacy: The Promise and Limits of Land Value Taxation in the UK

Best in Category

Best History — Ela Begum Kumcuoglu | St Paul's Girls' School
How did the colonial British education system stifle the Indian colonial subject's voice?

Best Economics — Yik Chun Fong | Tonbridge School
Fear and Courage: The Hidden Price Mechanism of Modern Capitalism

Best English — Marina Kokelaar | Stephen Perse Foundation, Cambridge
A Battle of the Voice: To what extent is Loki's success in Lokasenna due to his verbal performance?

Best Philosophy — Doyun Kim | American School of Guatemala
The Comfort in What We Fear: The Attraction to Cosmic Horror

Best Science — Charan Emmidi | Wallington County Grammar School
Rebirth for the Few: To what extent does Casgevy represent a revolution in treating Sickle Cell Disease?

Best Law — Anni Salzmann | Godolphin & Latymer School
Is the legacy of colonialism a matter of history, or an ongoing legal reality?

Best Mathematics — Konosuke Tetsunaga | Concord College
The Harmonic Legacy: Symmetry and the Architecture of the Fourier Transform

Best Politics — Albert Simpson | Hampton School
The Rebirth of the Natural Governing Parties

Best Arts — Leandra Li | St Paul's Girls' School
How does fear dictate the art of 'othering'?

Commendations

The following students produced essays of genuine distinction and are recognised for the quality of their work.

Fahim Alikhan | The Grammar School at Leeds
The Rebirth of Meaning: Why Literature Refuses to Die

Gemma Bell | Alness Academy
History and the Problem of Voice

Mia Patel | Parmiter's School
Do supermarkets respond to consumer voice, or shape it?

Tarannom Rezaeipour | Newham Collegiate Sixth Form
Homeless by Design: Why Proteins Do Not Need a Home to Function

Harry Alexander | Calday Grange Grammar School
To What Extent Does the Legacy of Keynes Impact Modern Day Macroeconomics?

Heidi Robbie | English Martyrs School
The Commodification of Fear: How the Government and Mass Media Have Manipulated Our Instincts Against Us

Ellie Bannister | Bourne Grammar School, Lincolnshire
Should governments provide a publicly funded legal service, free of charge for users, to ensure all citizens have a voice in 21st century legal systems?

Nafisa Alderson Orza | Calderstones Grammar School
To what extent has the rejection of cultural relativism in Western legal systems contributed to the marginalisation and fear of minority cultural practices?

Consultancy Scholarship

Every student listed in this year's results — winners, category prizes, and commendations — has been awarded a Libra Education Consultancy Scholarship. This entitles each recipient to a complimentary initial consultation with a Libra senior consultant, redeemable for school admissions, university applications, or careers guidance. We created this prize because the essay competition consistently surfaces students with the intellectual calibre to benefit directly from expert guidance — and we want to make that available to all of them, regardless of background.

A Note on Judging

Each essay was assessed on four criteria: analytical rigour, clarity of argument, originality of approach, and quality of written expression.

A number of strong submissions did not make the final list for the following reasons:

Argument development. Several essays opened with a genuinely interesting thesis but did not sustain it — drifting into description or summary rather than maintaining analytical pressure throughout. A strong essay argues on every page.

Differentiation. Some topics attracted multiple entries. Where a question was widely chosen, essays needed to take a distinctive angle to stand out. Restating the mainstream position on a contested subject, however accurately, is not enough.

Technical compliance. A small number of entries were disqualified for exceeding the word limit, missing citations, or incorrect formatting. Competition guidelines exist to create a fair assessment environment — adherence to them is itself a demonstration of care and professionalism.

Proofreading. Several otherwise excellent essays lost marks to avoidable errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Before submitting any piece of formal writing, read it aloud and ask someone else to review it.

We congratulate all participants on the quality of work submitted this year, and we look forward to seeing many of these names again.