Calling Bhutanese undergraduate students!

The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), University of Westminster, the United Kingdom and the Center for Local Governance and Research (CLG) Bhutan are organising an essay competition under the theme, “Developmental challenges in Bhutan and how to overcome them” for Bhutanese undergraduate students in any subject enrolled within institutions in Bhutan. Students who graduated in June/July 2021 are also encouraged to take part. 

The competition follows on from the experiences from the past two rounds of BBR Conferences organised by Dr Nitasha Kaul, CSD, University of Westminster, London in collaboration with CLG Bhutan under the theme, ‘Bhutan: Biodemocracy and Resilience’. (https://bhutanbiodemocracy.com and @BhutanBiodemocracy Facebook page).

The competition is meant to encourage young Bhutanese to think critically and offer non-partisan perspectives in overcoming development challenges in Bhutan across social, economic, cultural and political spectrums. 

A 1500-word essay in English should be submitted on or before 9 PM (2100 hours) Bhutan Standard Time (BST), 12 October 2021 to the organisers at bhutancsd2021@gmail.com along with an authorship declaration form which can be downloaded here. Except for the file name of the essay which should be the author’s name, no identifying information should be mentioned within the essay. The essay file should be converted into a PDF format. 

Cash prizes will be awarded to the three best entries, Nu. 8,000/-, Nu. 5,000/- and Nu. 4,000/- for first, second and third, respectively. Book tokens worth Nu.500/- will be awarded for several next best merit entries. The essay will assess the ability to address the theme (question), and develop a well-informed argument exhibiting analytical skills, coherence, innovative thinking and relevant examples in correct language and grammatical expression. 

The winning entries will be announced in a celebration on 20 December 2021 on Zoom platform and the results will be posted on the Bhutan Biodemocracy website (bhutanbiodemocracy.com) and @BhutanBiodemocracy Facebook page. 

For any queries, and to submit your entries, please write to the organising team at bhutancsd2021@gmail.com