Big Think Competition 2025 Results

We are delighted to share the results of our 2025 Big Think Competition.

Each year, the Big Think invites UK state school students aged 15 to 18 to respond to one of our tutors’ ‘big’ tutorial-style questions in a five-minute video essay. The competition offers students the opportunity to explore their subject at university level, strengthen their personal statements, and culminates in a visit to the College for the winners.

We are thrilled to announce that Alana Cunnane won first prize in this year’s competition, with her response to the question: ‘What can literature and/or the other arts do that so-called “AI” probably never will?’ Alana’s entry was praised for its high-quality evidence, close reading, and literary analysis, which together built a well-developed and nuanced argument.

Sahana Sethuraman was awarded second prize for her thoughtful response to the question: ‘Should we send people to Mars?’ Judges highlighted Sahana’s discussion of orbit and environmental considerations as particularly strong.

In June, we welcomed Alana, Sahana and the subject prize winners to Teddy Hall, where they met the tutors who marked their entries, toured the College with current students and found out more about life at university and the Oxford application process.

2025 was another record-breaking year for the competition, with 272 video essays submitted from across the UK – from Falkirk to Plymouth. Our tutors awarded more commendations than ever before, reflecting the consistently high quality of this year’s entries. Artificial Intelligence proved a popular topic, inspiring questions from Computer Science to Economics and English. Medical Sciences received the most entries, prompted by the question ‘What does our brain do while we sleep?’

You can find a complete list of winners and commendations, watch the winning entries, and learn more about the competition on our Big Think Competition webpage. A huge thank you to the tutors involved this year and to the many students who entered for their thoughtful, creative, and insightful videos!