Launching the UCAS annual Love Learning competition, the head of the admissions service said subject choice is an important decision, but we shouldn’t underestimate that the university experience alone is 'life-defining', and that higher education can equip people with valuable skills, regardless of the course studied.
The competition offers two £3,000 prizes to students whose entries will inspire the next generation of undergraduate students with a piece of creative writing or a short video. Now in its fourth year, previous winners have described how higher education expands the mind, as well as improving career prospects.
Mary Curnock Cook said: ‘To reach your full potential at university, you need deep engagement with the subject you are studying. This competition gives current students the opportunity to articulate the profound and life-defining experience of higher education, and their entries can help inspire thousands of students considering the wide range of courses available.
‘Each year, I look forward to reviewing the entries, because they also remind us all that the higher education experience itself equips people with high-value skills, regardless of the course studied.
‘This competition showcases the reality of university life in full colour, revealing the self-confidence that comes from living independently, the shared energy that is generated amongst students with common interests, and the clearer sense of future-self that students gain.’
As well as the main prizes, six runners up also win £1,000 each. One of last year’s winners, English Literature and Creative Writing student Noah De Grunwald, told us university had given him ‘the means to find, and follow, a passion’.
You can see the work of last year’s winners and runners up here.
The competition opens today and runs until 13 July 2016.
Full entry details can be found on our website, and you can follow the conversation at #lovelearning.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
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About Love Learning
We want students to tell us why they love studying their chosen subject through a piece of writing or a video. Written pieces can be up to 500 words, but people shouldn't feel the need to write that much if they don't want to. The short videos should be no longer than 30 seconds.
Rules
The competition opens at 10:00 (UK time) on Wednesday 22 June, and closes at 17:00 (UK time) on Wednesday 13 July 2016.
The judging criteria and weighting is as follows:
- Originality = 25%
- Insight into the undergraduate or postgraduate experience = 25%
- Powerful expression = 25%
- Advocacy for undergraduate or postgraduate study = 25%