The British Council is calling for policy ideas from all bright minds among undergraduate and graduate students to address challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to getting a chance to have a go at solving some of the most pressing issues the world is faced with today, the contest will be an opportunity for networking with brilliant students from across the country and for winning an online course at universities in the United Kingdom. 

What is COVID-19 Students’ Policy Challenge?

The COVID-19 Policy Challenge is a students’ contest dedicated to designing policy proposals that aim to solve today's most pressing challenges. Participants of the contest are invited to submit policy briefs in response to one of the challenge prompts (see below) by 8 December 2020. Top five individuals/teams will advance to the online final where they will have three minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel consisting of policymakers, NGOs leaders and donor representatives. The online event will be held in second half of January 2021. 

Why should students participate in this contest?

Benefits of participating in a competition include, but are not limited to the following: 

• having an opportunity to win online courses. First-place winners will receive a voucher of GBP 1,500 for courses at universities in the United Kingdom, while second place winners will receive voucher of GBP 1,000
• having your proposal published in the British Council online collection of all finalists’ policy briefs
• networking with other students with diverse academic backgrounds
• developing critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills.

What are the challenge prompts?

The challenge prompts are overarching thematic areas among which participants will have to pick the specific problem at local or national level, or in universities and hospitals, and try to solve it through their policy proposals. The challenge prompts for this contest are as follows: