PRME Chapter UK and Ireland Responsible Business and Management Writing Competition 2022/23
Seventh Annual Competition
Announcement of Prize-Winners
4 May 2023
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The PRME Chapter UK and Ireland and Oxford Brookes University are delighted to announce an impressive set of winners in this seventh year of the Responsible Business and Management Competition. Announcing the 2023 results, Dr Jonathan Louw, Chapter Chair and Oxford Brookes competition organiser, has commended the winners, other finalists and indeed all entrants on “their exceptionally talented, creative and committed contributions to researching and reflecting on sustainability, responsibility and ethical challenges”. He has also thanked “the many academic staff who have nurtured and encouraged the quality of work received, and the 11 judges from nine different universities (listed below), whose many hours of voluntary commitment have made today’s outcome possible”. Particular congratulations to the students (and their teachers) at the three institutions (Durham, Sussex and Birmingham) that have dominated to an unusual extent the winners and finalists lists this year.
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The first prize in the Undergraduate UG essay category is awarded to Jos Kowal of the University of Durham. Co-Chairs of the UG Panel, Angie Lench and Dr Romas Malevicius, praised an “insightful, independent, mature and critical evaluation” of the global food system and its dysfunctions, along with potential implications for future governance. The second prize is won by Julia Fricke (University of Winchester) who expertly posed and addressed the question, “Fair Trade or Equal Trade? What are the barriers to equality and fairness as imagined by the Fairtrade Foundation?” The third prize goes to Tania Bradford (University of Durham) whose work also addressed the role of corporations in solving the global food crisis.
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The Postgraduate (PG) judging panel have reported how impressed they were by the increased quality and diversity of the postgraduate submissions this year. Topics ranged across issues of gender, education, decarbonisation and responsible business practices in multiple sectors. The winner of the first prize in the postgraduate essay category is Mary Morrison, of the University of Sussex. Reflecting on Mary’s winning entry, Dr Jana Filosof, PG Panel Chair, commended her “well-argued, well-researched and highly topical” approach in addressing the question, “What is motivating the current proliferation in Sustainability Reporting?” Jorge Garcia-Rocha, also of the University of Sussex, wins the second prize for his evaluation of the impacts that sustainability audits have on the field of accounting for sustainability. The third prize is awarded to David Moore of Maynooth University for his exploration of whether SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities can be a framework for transformational change or simply a wish list that is unachievable.
In the category of Alternative Media (AM), the University of Birmingham has made a strong showing this year. Their first prize-winner Natalia Pawlak produced a video evaluating the responsible business practices of Tesco. Dr Karen Cripps, Chair of the AM Panel, praised “A strong SDG structure, excellent research, clear recommendations as well as clever editing and visual appeal”. In second place is Anya Popat (University of Birmingham) for her video exploration of the business and environmental case for vertical farming. Taking the third prize is Caitlyn Young (Queen’s University Belfast) for her video-based application of ethical theory to the subject of greenwashing. The AM panel and competition organisers were pleased to see a substantial increase in the number of entries in this category in 2023.
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For further information
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This seventh annual competition received 100 entries from the 19 institutions listed in the table below. The organisers would like to thank most sincerely all those staff who encouraged entries. Any enquiries about the results can be directed to Dr Jonathan Louw at prme@brookes.ac.uk
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Prize-winners’ and finalists’ work will be published on the Chapter website in due course. Prize-winners and finalists will be contacted individually about their prizes and/or certificates. Please copy any local publicity about the prize-winners to our Linkedin page and our Twitter feed: @PRME_UKI. For more information about the PRME Chapter UK and Ireland see: https://www.unprme.org.uk/
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FULL PRIZE-WINNER AND FINALIST LIST
Undergraduate Category
First Prize (£500)
Jos Kowal
University of Durham
Download Jos' work HERE
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Second Prize (£300)
Julia Fricke
University of Winchester
Download Julia's work HERE
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Third Prize (£100)
Tania Bradford
University of Durham
Download Tania's work HERE
Other Undergraduate Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Lucy Baker (University of Durham) - Download Lucy's work HERE; Vito Balzano (University of Glasgow); Elodie Lunt (University of Durham); Martha Murray (University of Durham); Zenab Mushtaq (University of Birmingham) - Download Zenab's work HERE; Eloise Pitcher (University of Durham); Roberts Smith (University of Durham);
Postgraduate Category
First Prize (£500)
Mary Morrison
University of Sussex
Download Mary's work HERE
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Second Prize (£300)
Jorge Garcia-Rocha
University of Sussex
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Third Prize (£100)
David Moore
Maynooth University
Other Postgraduate Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Sophie Caplice (University College Cork); Yaping Chen (Queen’s University Belfast) - Download Yaping's work HERE; Christos Eleftheriou (University of Sussex) - Download Christos' work HERE; Sara Frankowska (University College Cork) - Download Sara's work HERE; Antu Manipadam (Maynooth University) - Download Manipadam's work HERE
Alternative Media Category
First Prize (£500)
Natalia Pawlak
University of Birmingham.
Access Natalia's work HERE
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Second Prize (£300)
Anya Popat
University of Birmingham
Access Anya's work HERE
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Third Prize (£100)
Caitlyn Young
Queen’s University Belfast
Access Caitlyn's work HERE
Other Alternative Media Finalists (in alphabetical order)
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Lucy Butler (University of Birmingham); Celine Chakhachiro, Dorianna Di Martino,
Valentina Munoz Di Rocco, Beatriz Silva Antunes Da Cunha (King’s College London*); Shivam Dwivedi, Preetha Gali, Ya-Jui Lee, Lambrini Zisi (King’s College London*); Aibe Gallagher (Queen’s University Belfast); Khushi Mehta, Xijue Ni, Xuenan Sun, Sumire Usui (King’s College London*); Imogen Smith (University of Birmingham); Rawan Yusuf (University of Birmingham). (* = group entries)
PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS
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Glasgow Caledonian University
King's College London
Maynooth University
Oxford Brookes University
Queen's University, Belfast
Sheffield Hallam University
University College Cork
University of Birmingham
University of Durham
University of Essex
University of Glasgow
University of Hertfordshire
University of Leicester
University of Northumbria
University of Sunderland
University of Stirling
University of Sussex
University of the West of England
University of Winchester
Prize-winners and finalists were this year drawn from 9 of the above institutions. Of particular note for making entries in all three categories were the University of Birmingham and Queen’s University Belfast.
JUDGING PANELS
The Chapter is most appreciative of the time and efforts of our volunteer judging panels. More information on these panel members can be found here.
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Postgraduate Panel
Dr Jana Filosof University of Hertfordshire (Chair)
Professor Peter Stokes Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University
Dr Rod Bain University of Stirling
Undergraduate Panels
Dr Romas Malevicius King’s College London (Panel 1 Chair)
Angie Lench University of the Arts London (retired) (Panel 2 Chair)
Dr Mohamed Saeudy University of Bedfordshire
Dr Laura Steele Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Sean Tanner University College Cork
Alternative Media Panel
Dr Karen Cripps Oxford Brookes University (Chair)
Dr Xinwu He Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Jonathan Louw Oxford Brookes University
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The UG, PG and AM panels work independently, reporting to the organisers at Oxford Brookes.
Anyone interested in joining a panel next year should contact Jonathan Louw (prme@brookes.ac.uk)