Think Student Essay Prize 2026 Shortlist Announced

The Royal Institute of Philosophy today announces the shortlist for the 2026 Think Student Essay Prize.

The Think Student Essay Prize competition has been hugely popular this year. We received over 1,500 student submissions.

Thank you to every single applicant. We greatly enjoyed reading all your essays. We also owe a big thank you to the very many schools with students who submitted essays – we very much appreciate your support.

The Chair of the prize, Dr Stephen Law, has selected the following applicants for this year’s shortlist:

  • Abdul Rehman
  • Iyanu Bashorun, Ontario Virtual School
  • Ivanna Munoz-Meza
  • Jacob Shmidt
  • Letian Cheng, Nanjing Foreign Language School
  • Muhammad Raza, Pak Turk Maarif International Schools and Colleges
  • Rintaro Aoyama 
  • Rania Sutton, Wellington College
  • Sehwan Park, Newton Academy, Seoul

The shortlist does not include one applicant for privacy reasons.

Huge congratulations to all of our shortlisted candidates, you can be justifiably proud of what you produced!

About the Think Student Essay Prize

TheThink Student Essay Prize is an annual competition open to young people aged 15-18. The winning essay will be published in the journal Think, our philosophy publication that is designed to be accessible to all audiences.