Azerbaijan’s first winner: Baku student tops history category at John Locke Essay Prize

Yasmin Fatiyeva, a student at Baku Oxford School, has won first place in the History category of the John Locke Institute Global Essay Prize 2026, one of the most prestigious international academic essay competitions for school students.

As the organisers confirmed, Yasmin is the first participant from Azerbaijan to win a category in the competition’s history.

The John Locke Institute is a British educational organisation named after the English philosopher John Locke. The institute focuses on developing critical thinking, academic writing and the intellectual abilities of talented students.

This year the competition received 100,277 essays from 183 countries. Entries were judged by academics and faculty from leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford.

The awards ceremony took place on 3 October at London’s Grosvenor House hotel as part of the John Locke Institute’s academic conference, held from 2 to 4 October. The conference programme included lectures and discussions with prominent scholars and culminated in the awards ceremony and a gala dinner.

Yasmin also received a US$5,000 scholarship to attend one of the institute’s future educational programmes.