• The winning essay will be published in Pensions Aspects magazine and Professional Pensions.
• Runner up essays will be published on the Pensions Aspects website
• Registration Deadline for essays: 5:00pm Friday 15 May 2020
• Winners will be offered a complimentary ticket to our DC Master Trust Symposium on Thursday 8 October 2020, where we will hold a short prize giving ceremony

How to enter the 4th PMI Student Essay Competition

Entrants should write an essay of 1,500-2,000 words on the following topic

Covid-19 has changed the way people and companies in the pensions industry are working. Will these become permanent changes in working practice, operational delivery and communication, or will old habits and methods return? What can we learn from current practices and what does the speed of change since restrictions were imposed, tell us?"

The entries for the 4th essay competition have now closed. 

Guidelines and judging criteria

Entries will be judged a panel of experts including: Lesley Carline – PMI President, Tim Phillips - PMI Vice President, Matt Dodds – Director, ITM, Jonathan Stapleton – Editor, Professional Pensions, Tim Middleton – PMI Director of Policy and External Affairs.

Read the tips below: 

1. Remember you are writing an essay, not an article 
2. Make sure you read the question thoroughly and answer the question 
3. Tell a story in your answer: what you are going to say, what are you saying, and what have you said? 
4. Keep the background information to a minimum and don’t take too long to get to the relevant points. As a guide, the introduction should generally make up a maximum of 3 paragraphs 
5. Ensure you give a complete and detailed argument rather than a high-level overview 
6. Include enough evidenced examples throughout to support your point. If you cannot include enough detail of the example due to word count, you can include links to further information in the footnotes 
7. Ensure your examples are appropriate to the question 
8. Make your essay engaging and interesting to the reader 
9. Avoid using too many colloquialisms 
10. Be ruthless with your editing – it’s easiest to cut from the introduction if you are struggling with word count 
11. Ask someone to proofread your essay before submitting 
12. Check your facts! 

Previous winners

March 2020

Winner: Michelle Cracknell, Independent Pension Consultant

Runner Up: Ben Picknett, Senior Consultant, Muse Advisory

Runner Up : Jennifer Dean, Pensions Administrator, First Actuarial LLP

September 2019

Winner: Ella Purkiss, LCP

Runner up: Jed Newton, Willis Towers Watson

Runner up: Richard Goldring, Smart Pension

Runner up: Peter Laurence, Trafalgar House

May 2019

Winner: Chris Burtenshaw, Barnett Waddingham

Runner up: Joanne Carr, First Actuarial

Runner up: Jed Newton, Willis Towers Watson

Special mention: Zak Cuerden, Capita Employee Solutions