Rules of Entry

Submitted by aomadmin on Monday, 8th September 2014
  1. The Governor-General’s Prize is an essay competition administered by The Constitution Education Fund. The Chief Executive Officer of The Constitution Education Fund shall appoint a Director of the Governor-General’s Prize, to whom responsibility for all aspects of the essay competition is delegated, and who shall have absolute discretion in all decisions relating to the competition.
  2. All students enrolled in an undergraduate degree at an Australian University and studying in Australia for all or part of 2022 or 2023 are eligible to enter. This includes final year honours students enrolled in an undergraduate degree, LLB and JD students.
  3. The Governor-General’s Prize encourages participation by all students irrespective of any disability. Any student believing he or she has a disability requiring any form of special consideration should contact the Prize Director at the earliest opportunity to ensure that all reasonable assistance is given (at the Prize Director’s discretion) to allow the person to participate fully.
  4. Each participant must make a declaration that the entry is his or her own and unaided original work. By submitting an entry, participants provide The Constitution Education Fund with the consent to conduct an integrity check of the submitted written work against copyright infringements or plagiarism.
  5. Only one essay entry per candidate is permitted.
  6. The deadline for submissions for the 2022-2023 competition is 30 December 2023.
  7. An entry may not be deemed to be a genuine attempt if it does not address the requirements set out in the questions, or if it exceeds 2,500 words in length, or if it employs language or concepts deemed by the Prize Director or any member of the judging panel to be unscholarly, defamatory or otherwise unpublishable.
  8. All primary and secondary sources quoted directly or indirectly or otherwise consulted in preparing the entry must be acknowledged using the citation system that is used by your university school or faculty. A bibliography must be included. Referencing such as footnotes and bibliography are NOT included in the 2,500 word limit.
  9. The Prize Director will appoint a judging panel and may (in consultation with the members of the judging panel) appoint assessors to assist with assessing entries at the preliminary stage. Assessors may prepare a shortlist of six finalists, from which the judging panel may choose the winners.
  10. In the preliminary round, all participation will be anonymous. In the event that one of the finalists selected is personally known to a member of the judging panel, that panel member may excuse him/herself from the oral examination of that finalist at his/her discretion.
  11. Participants selected to be interviewed in the final round will be notified accordingly. They will be required to attend the final round venue, or link in by telephone, at a specified time on a specified date, when each finalist will present for twenty minutes before the judging panel and shall answer questions without notice as required by the judging panel. At the Prize Director's discretion, the oral examination may be conducted by telephone or videolink. Finalists will be required to answer further questions as the panel requires, but will not be required to provide further written answers.
  12. The judging panel’s decision is final in both the preliminary and final rounds and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the correctness of their decision. The Prize Director’s decision is final in all matters not determined by the judging panel and no correspondence will be entered into concerning such decisions.
  13. Prize winners may receive cash prizes. The total prize money for the 2022-2023 competition is $10,000 and allocation of any monies to be awarded will be at the discretion of the Prize Director.
  14. It is a condition of participation that all participants in the 2022-2023 competition agree to be bound by these rules.
  15. Certificates of merit may be awarded by the judging panel to participants who are not selected as finalists.
  16. Finalists will be invited to a ceremony following the final judging.
  17. Financial assistance may be provided to participants for travel to the final round venue and any ceremony at the Prize Director's discretion.
  18. The Prize Director reserves the right to vary these rules from time to time at The Constitution Education Fund's discretion without notice to competitors, with this website to be regularly updated with the most recent version of the Rules.
  19. For the purposes of the 2022-2023 competition, an 'Australian University' is an institution that is affiliated with Universities Australia.
  20. Undergraduate students over the age of 25 and/or not studying full-time are encouraged to participate in the 2022-2023 competition.
  21. In the first instance, enquiries should be directed to Phuong Van via email: pvan@cefa.org.au.
  22. Should the Prize Director, for any reason, decide to terminate the 2022-2023 competition at any time prior to the award of the 2022-2023 Governor-General’s Prize. The Constitution Education Fund shall not owe any financial or other liability to any entrant in the competition