Essay Writing Contest
Open to: students attending Bachelor’s and Master’s studies at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Goce Delcev University - Shtip, University St. Kliment Ohridski Bitola, South East European University, and University American College Skopje. Employees, consultants, or interns of the OSCE, and their immediate family members, are not eligible to participate.
Submission deadline: 21 November 2025
Awards: The authors of the three best essays will each receive vouchers for IT equipment
The OSCE Mission to Skopje aims to advance the rule of law and human rights by implementing applicable international standards and OSCE commitments in the judiciary and fundamental rights areas, in line with North Macedonia's strategic priorities. The Mission addresses various challenges in the domains of judicial independence and impartiality, criminal justice, anti-corruption, anti-discrimination, gender equality and fundamental rights in North Macedonia as identified in various governmental policy documents and international expert assessments.
In parallel to the anti-corruption masterclasses series, organized in co-operation with five national universities (University American College Skopje, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Goce Delcev University - Shtip, University St. Kliment Ohridski Bitola and South East European University), the OSCE Mission to Skopje has welcomed the strong interest and engagement shown by students. Building on this enthusiasm, the Mission is pleased to announce an essay writing competition for students. The competition aims to further encourage active participation in anti-corruption initiatives, drawing on the insights students gained from lectures delivered by more than a dozen anti-corruption professionals, scholars, and activists during the masterclass series.
The competition will be open until 21 November 2025.
Essays shall demonstrate a well-informed understanding of the complex nature of corruption and propose realistic ideas on how to reduce corruption. Authors should provide one or more arguments on their chosen topic, elaborated and supported with credible academic, legal or policy sources. Thus, authors are encouraged to present their own opinion but need to make sure such opinion is based on credible and convincing evidence. Essays shall be written in a well-structured and clear manner, with adequate use of language.
Essays shall be based on one of the following general topics:
• Integrity and the use of AI
• Corruption and crypto assets
• Criminal aspects of corruption
• Corruption and gender
- Corruption and media
These topics provide a general direction, allowing authors to develop their essays more specifically, as long as they remain aligned with one of the five general topics.
An evaluation committee consisting of three professors will assess the anonymously submitted essays applying the following criteria:
• Essay topic and relevance (max. 25 points)
• Creativeness and originality of proposed argument(s) and solution(s) (max. 25 points)
• Argumentation and use of evidence and sources (max. 25 points)
• Language, structure and clarity (max. 25 points)
Essays shall be written in English, in Times New Roman font, size 12, with 1.5 line spacing. The total length should be between 1,400 and 1,600 words (approximately 3 pages). Essays that exceed this word count will not be considered.
All essays must be the original work of the authors. Any instance of plagiarism, including the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, will result in disqualification from the competition.
Info session
For interested students, the OSCE Mission to Skopje will organize an online info session with more precise guidelines on how to prepare a competitive essay, one week before the essay submission deadline. To obtain information on the exact time and date for the session and a Zoom link, please send an email to Ana.DespotovskaBogevska@osce.org and provide your contact information.
Application process
Instructions for the essay writing competition are available in Macedonian and Albanian as well.
Authors shall submit their essays as PDF files to Ana.DespotovskaBogevska@osce.org by 21 November 2025. To support the process of anonymous evaluation, authors should include their full name, surname, and the name of their university in the body of the email. Authors must ensure that their names do not appear in the essay document itself.
Nothing in or related to this contest shall be construed as a waiver, express or implied, of any of the privileges and immunities of the OSCE.