The United Nations defines Global Sustainable Development (GSD) as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”**.

The world’s population is predicted to grow from six to ten billion between the years 2000 and 2050, with the next few decades predicted to witness significant transformations in economic growth, international relations, human development, biodiversity, human health, and social justice.

Our growing number of degrees equip our students with the expertise, skills, and knowledge that enable them to contribute meaningfully to the debates about these big problems, so that they can make a real difference to the world. We offer a single honours degree and a number of joint honours degrees.

To find out more about GSD at Warwick, please see here.

** United Nations Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, 1987

Our competition provides year 12* students with the opportunity to think creatively and gain valuable research skills as they learn more about global sustainable development. Since it was established, we have expanded the types of entries that can be submitted to include videos, podcasts and poetry, as well as more traditional essay responses. This is in line with our aim to engage with students from a variety of different backgrounds and interests, giving them the chance to present their unique perspectives on issues of global sustainable development.

If you’re shortlisted you’ll be invited to a GSD Campus Day at the University of Warwick. During your time with us, you’ll meet other shortlisted entrants, members of staff from our Department and our current students too. You'll take part in activities and interactive sessions, and you'll get a sense of what studying GSD involves.

During the Campus Day, we’ll announce the winners of the competition and each winner will be awarded a £50 prize. Our Campus Day and prizes are recognition of your achievement and effort in tackling the types of topics our degrees aim to address. We hope this experience will be a great opportunity for you to get your voice heard. We also hope it's a time you can refer back to when you challenged yourself beyond your everyday studies at school.

The judging panel will consist of members of academic staff from the GSD team, our current students and the Globus team. We’ll be looking for your engagement with your chosen topic, your understanding of the issue and your creativity in your response.

The competition is open to you if you're in year 12 in the UK, or if you're in the sixteen to seventeen-year-old age group equivalent. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from or what subjects you currently study. We're looking for unique entries, and as you'll see in our Get involved page, we accept a whole range of responses, from traditional essays to videos. Whatever your background, we'd like to hear what you have to say about issues of global sustainable development.

Entry for the 2020 competition is now closed.

If you’re a school teacher and you think your students could benefit from taking part in our competition, please pass on the word for us and encourage your students to get involved. You can download our competition poster here. Please could we ask that you print this and place it in a visible area of your school, such as a student common room.

If you’d like to find out about other events in the GSD Department that your pupils could be involved in, please visit our Outreach pages.