Announcement of Prize-Winners and Finalists - Responsible Business and Management Student Writing Competition 2025

The 9th Annual Competition

Please join us in celebrating another year of student research, writing and creativity!The PRME Chapter UK and Ireland and Oxford Brookes University are delighted to announce the winners of the 9th Responsible Business and Management Student Writing Competition. 

Announcing the 2025 outcome, Dr Jonathan Louw, Oxford Brookes competition organiser, has highlighted “how difficult a job the judges have had this year in the context of so many insightful and intellectually challenging contributions, many also demonstrating deep personal commitment to ethical and sustainable organisational practices”.

The Chapter would also like to take this opportunity to applaud the role of the many academics who have taught, inspired and encouraged all the students whose work was entered in the competition. The competition helps to build the profile of PRME and the SDGs within our members’ institutions, and beyond, and the recognition it offers can be used to prompt deeper and wider engagement in PRME-related teaching and research. As always, the organisers would also like to underline the value of the critical, independent insights and the hard work of the 11 judges from 8 universities (listed below) whose freely given time enables this competition to thrive.

This year demonstrated an especially diverse and high-quality set of entries in the Alternative Media (AM) category, open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The first prize-winner is Charlie Bentley of the University of the Arts London for his digital sketchbook and reflective commentary on the theme of how emerging technologies might be utilised to offer individuals with motor-physical difficulties better accessibility to clothing and personal style. Dr Xinwu He, Chair of the AM panel, notes “This is a commendable, impactful, and thoughtfully executed project.

Applying the Stanford Design Thinking Process, the digital sketchbook and reflective commentary provide substantial evidence of dedicated effort and the work clearly aligns with SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)”. The second prize is shared by Josephine Ng (University of the West of England) and Letycia Thedrica (University of the Arts London). Josphine’s entry combined a video, artwork and written reflection on the subject of climate change. Letycia’s submission consisted of an infographic-rich, pitchdeck-based video presentation on the topic of sustainable supply chain management at street fashion brand Weekday. Recipient of the third prize is Alexandra Mernagh (University of Birmingham) for a blog on the topic: How to honour women and the planet - sustainable ways to celebrate International Women's Day.

University of Durham students often shine in the Undergraduate (UG) essay category and particular congratulations to them this year as they have scooped all three of the top prizes. The first prize is awarded to Harry Hare for his exploration of the corporate challenges of applying AI for good. Co-Chairs of the UG Panel, Angie Lench and Dr Mohamed Saeudy, praised his “conceptually rich and ethically powerful essay that interrogates the opportunities and dangers of AI through a deeply responsible management lens, demonstrating philosophical literacy and the ability to connect abstract theory with pressing global realities”. The second prize is won by Amy Burwood for an essay entitled: Redefining Flexibility: a Path Toward Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability. Completing the Durham hat trick, Scarlotte Mok wins the third prize for a further evaluation of the potential for good of AI within a UN SDG framing.

The UG Panel Co-Chairs have also reflected on this year’s overall UG results (prize winners and the wider set of finalists - for the latter, see below) in the context of what appears to be a consistently strong performance in recent years from University of Durham and Oxford Brookes University students. They raise interesting questions, commenting that this performance “may reflect not only individual talent but also the result of sustained institutional support for embedding sustainability and PRME principles in teaching and assessment design, as well as real world application and entrant mentorship – all factors that can make a tangible difference in a competition like this. Exploring these success factors more fully would be a worthy topic for PRME Chapter attention". For the record, neither university has been represented on this year’s or recent years’ UG judging panels.

In the Postgraduate (PG) essay category the judging panel have once again been treated to a rich variety of submissions.

These have included ethical critiques of individual companies, sustainable marketing campaign evaluations, a number of circular economy investigations and explorations of responsible leadership and organisational behaviour themes. The winner of the first prize in the postgraduate essay category is Anael Espinosa Rodriguez of the University of Glasgow for an assessment of the deforestation impact of the Tren Maya Project in Mexico. Commenting on Anael’s submission, Dr Stuart McClure, PG Panel Chair, commended “a highly impressive and analytically rigorous piece of postgraduate work that demonstrates an excellent command of environmental economics, sustainability policy, and quantitative research methodology. It makes a valuable and timely contribution to the PRME competition by addressing the environmental costs of infrastructure-led development through a case study with real-world consequences.”

Second prize winner in this category is Rhythanya Pandian (University of the Arts London) for a critical evaluation of the design management principles applied at the fashion company Ted Baker.  The third prize is awarded to James Webb (University of Westminster) for an essay exploring collaboration, cooperation and Green Supply Chains.

For further information

This 9th annual competition received 107 entries from the 27 institutions listed in the table below. Any enquiries about the results can be directed to Dr Jonathan Louw at prme@brookes.ac.uk

Finalists’ work will be published on the Chapter website in due course.

Prize-winners and finalists will be contacted individually during the second week of May about their prizes and/or certificates. Please copy any local publicity about the prize-winners to the Chapter’s Linkedin page .For more information about the PRME Chapter UK and Ireland see: https://www.unprme.org.uk/

FULL PRIZE-WINNER AND FINALIST LIST

Alternative Media Category

First Prize (£500)  Charlie Bentley, University of the Arts London

Second Prize (£300- shared) Josephine Ng, University of the West of England and Letycia Thedrica, University of the Arts London

Third Prize (£100) Alexandra Mernagh, University of Birmingham

Other Alternative Media Finalists (in alphabetical order)

Katerina Christodolou (University of Birmingham), Hannah Cruddace (University of the West of England), Lucy Grubb (University of the West of England), Imogen Kendall (University of Birmingham), Amelia Newman (University of Birmingham), Isaac Rashid (Sheffield Hallam University)    

Undergraduate Category

First Prize (£500) Harry Hare, University of Durham

Second Prize (£300) Amy Burwood, University of Durham

Third Prize (£100) Scarlotte Mok, University of Durham

Other Undergraduate Finalists (in alphabetical order)

Faridah Adebambo Ogun (University of Durham), Ziyodullah Abdullaev (University of Northumbria), Max Drew (Oxford Brookes University), Elizabeth Fleetwood (Oxford Brookes University), Allegra Hutchings (University of Durham), Syed Islam (University of Durham), Harriette Lilburn (University of Durham), Ginevra Moneti (Oxford Brookes University), Miranda Peredo (Oxford Brookes University), Emily Vaughan (Oxford Brookes University), Jack Wells (University of Durham)

Postgraduate Category

First Prize (£500) Anael Espinosa Rodriguez, University of Glasgow

Second Prize (£300) Rhythanya Pandian, University of the Arts London

Third Prize (£100) James Webb, University of Westminster

Other Postgraduate Finalists (in alphabetical order)

Tamara Malazonia (University of Bath), Rosie Prentice (University of Bath)

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

Bath Spa University

De Montfort University

King's College London

Oxford Brookes University

Queen Mary University of London

Robert Gordon University

Sheffield Hallam University

Ulster University

University College Dublin

University of the Arts London

University of Bath

University of Bedfordshire

University of Birmingham

University of Durham

University of Exeter

University of Glasgow

University of Leicester

University of Northumbria

University of Nottingham

University of Plymouth

University of Salford

University of Sheffield

University of South Wales

University of Sunderland

University of the West of England

University of Westminster

University of Winchester

Prize-winners and finalists this year were drawn from 10 of the above 27 institutions.

JUDGING PANELS

The Chapter thanks and commends the efforts of the following volunteer judging panel members:

Dr Anjana Basnet                          University of Salford

Dr Gyuzel Gadelshina                   University of Northumbria

Dr Xinwu He                                   Queens University Belfast (Alternative Media Panel Chair)

Dr Amir Keshtiban                         York St John University

Angie Lench                                   University of the Arts, London (retired) (UG Panel 1 Chair)

Dr Romas Malevicius                     King’s College London

Dr Stuart McClure                         Queen’s University Belfast (PG Panel Chair)

Dr Mohamed Saeudy                   University of Bedfordshire (UG Panel 2 Chair)

Dr Pallavi Singh                             Sheffield Hallam University

Dr Laura Steele                             Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Jo Watts                                   Sheffield Hallam University

The UG, PG and AM panels work independently, reporting to the organisers at Oxford Brookes.Links to the professional profiles of the panel members can be found here.

Anyone interested in joining a panel next year should contact Jonathan Louw (prme@brookes.ac.uk)