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FAQ's - How to Submit

Who can Submit?
The Global Undergraduate Awards Programme accepts submissions from undergraduate students in the final or penultimate year of an undergraduate degree course, and those who have graduated in the last year. An undergraduate student refers to an individual studying full-time for a bachelor’s degree, which is usually 3 or 4 years in duration. Part-time Degrees Individuals who are studying for an undergraduate degree on a part-time basis are eligible to submit, once they have completed two-thirds of the required coursework for their degree. Honours Degrees In countries with an optional honours year, such as Australia, your eligibility is determined by your expected graduation year. If you are planning to complete a four-year degree, you are eligible to submit in your third or fourth year of study. If you are planning to undertake a three-year degree, you are eligible to submit in your second or third year of study. Integrated Masters Bachelors Degrees Entrants enrolled in integrated master’s/undergraduate master’s degrees may only submit coursework that was completed for the bachelor’s degree component of their degree. This generally means that work completed for the final year of the degree is classified as postgraduate coursework and therefore ineligible for submission. If you have any queries relating to submitting work as a student enrolled in an integrated master’s/undergraduate master’s degree, please contact us.
There is absolutely no cost for a student to submit their work to the competition.
The Global Undergraduate Awards currently recognises entrants on three levels: Highly Commended Entrants; Regional Winners; Global Winners. All winning entrants are recognised with a Certificate of Recognition and the publication of their submission on The Undergraduate Library. The 25 Global Winners also receive a Gold Medal, fully funded travel and a free ticket to attend the annual GUA Global Summit.
Now that you have registered, you can rest assured that you have secured the opportunity to submit your coursework to The Global Undergraduate Awards programme. You can log back into your form and continue the process of submitting your work. You can login or you can register and submit here.

No, you only need to register once. You may submit up to three different papers to any combination of categories with your account.

You can submit up to three papers/projects.

For the purposes of satisfying the eligibility criteria, an A grade includes an A- grade. Please refer to our international grade requirements to see if your academic coursework is A grade or equivalent. If your grading system is not listed, and you do not know if your coursework is an A or 2.1 equivalent, please contact us with your grade and institution.

We advise students to choose their category based on the title of their degree or subject/module that the paper was written for. Check out the list of categories. It may also be helpful to ask your lecturer or supervisor as to which category they would deem appropriate for the paper. If you are still unsure, and we’d be happy to help.
No. You cannot submit the same paper more than once. You can however submit up to three papers to the GUA, and each to a different category, if you wish.
Yes, you can feel free to make edits to your paper after you receive your grade in order to improve it upon consultation and approval from your supervisor. This revised paper must still meet our grade requirements.
The GUA only accepts work that was completed for your undergraduate degree. If you completed work on an optional programme, such as a summer school, this work is not eligible for submission.
Not to worry, you will be able to change your submission details on the submission form, including the category under which you would like to submit your paper. Simply use the login and password you chose when you originally registered and edit your form.
If you have forgotten your password, click ‘forgot password’ and you will be emailed the option to create a new one, easy.

Unfortunately, the GUA only accepts submissions from students in the final or penultimate year of an undergraduate degree course. So, if you are undertaking a three-year degree, only students in their second or third year of study can submit. If you are undertaking a four-year degree, only students in their third or fourth year of study are eligible to submit. You might consider becoming a Campus Ambassador in your first year though, encourage others and learn about the process before it’s your turn to enter. Plus our most active Campus Ambassador also wins a free ticket to the Summit! Find out about becoming a Campus Ambassador here.

Yes, part-time students are eligible to submit. However, you must have completed 2/3 of the work required for your degree in order to be eligible.

The GUA only accepts submissions in English. However, we would encourage students who have completed work in a language other than English to translate essays into English and submit the translated paper/project. You are free to seek any guidance necessary during this translation process.

Yes, you can submit work that you completed at any point in during your penultimate or final year for up to a year after graduation.
An abstract is a succinct summary/synopsis of your paper that enables the judges to quickly ascertain your paper’s purpose or content. It essentially is a selling point on the value of your paper’s content and therefore, GUA recommends that you put thought and effort into writing a clear abstract to accompany your paper as it will be assessed by the judging panel for your category.

Please refer to our advice on writing an abstract or our article on writing a compelling abstract here. Additionally, there are many online resources that provide advice on writing a strong academic abstract.

The statement is your opportunity to explain your project to the judges. You can talk about the motivation behind your work, the process that were involved in its creation, etc. Anything at all that would help the judges to understand your work better!

Please check out our section on writing an abstract or our article on writing a compelling artist’s statement/abstract here.

Each category has its own rules around word count and you should refer back to the Category Selection page for detailed breakdowns there OR register on the submission portal and descriptions are there as well.

The word limit includes the main body of your paper and the footnotes, if footnotes are included. It does not include the bibliography/reference page, list of contents or appendices. 

No, we accept all referencing styles, once it is consistent throughout the paper.

Yes, you can include images and graphs. Any text accompanying the image, will be included in the word count. However, images/graphs that are included in the appendix will not be included in the word count. Please be mindful that if your images/graphs contain any identifying elements like the University name or an identifiable person this will breach the anonymity rule and should be removed for the judging process.

No, we realise that some papers refer to certain areas that could geographically locate a student. We believe, however, that this is a crucial detail to many papers and therefore does not violate our anonymity requirements. Be careful however to remove any mention of your name, University, module code, lecturer etc. as well as any photographs of you or your institution.

No, you cannot submit work that has been published online or in print before the submission deadline.

Entrants are also advised that publishing their work while the Judging Process is underway (June-September) could breach the anonymity of their entry and result in disqualification.

The following categories will be accepting group work:
  • Architecture & Design
  • Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Computer Science
  • Earth & Environmental Sciences
  • Engineering Life Sciences
  • Mass Communications
  • Mathematics & Physics
  • Medical Sciences
A piece of group work must meet the following criteria to be eligible to submit:
  • A maximum of 6 contributing authors
  • All contributing authors need to meet the eligibility requirements
  • All contributing authors must consent to the work being submitted
  • One contributing author is nominated by the group to submit the work and represent the group if their entry is awarded.
  Group work IS CURRENTLY ONLY accepted in THESE categories and are subject to the same submission criteria, word count and anonymity requirements as individual entries. Look over these options in more detail in the Category Selection page.
This is to facilitate the possibility of attendance fees for The Global Undergraduate Summit and Gala Dinner being sponsored by one of GUA’s corporate sponsors.
No, this does not need to be anonymised as it is not seen by the judges.

If necessary, you can submit to GUA with a ‘predicted grade.’ i.e. the grade you expect to receive based on your marker’s comments or past coursework. In some cases you may be requested to upload a transcript to prove your previous grades should you win. For this reason, it is an optional part of the submission process and should not be anonymised.

Please ensure that your paper is saved in PDF format. The maximum file size is 20MB. If your paper meets the above criteria and still won’t upload to your submission form, please contact us.

Metadata is information embedded in your PDF file that can include details like the author’s name, document creation date, and editing history. Removing metadata is crucial because it can reveal your identity, which could compromise the anonymity of your submission. Ensuring your entry is anonymous allows the judging process to be completely impartial.

We currently recommend – https://metadataremover.org/ or https://tools.pdf24.org/en/remove-pdf-metadata

Removing metadata from your PDF is a simple process. We We currently recommend – https://metadataremover.org/ or https://tools.pdf24.org/en/remove-pdf-metadata

You can also use PDF editing software like Adobe Acrobat if you have access to that. Always double-check that all identifying information is removed before submitting by viewing your document’s information.

Yes, in recent inetrations of our judging process this has become more of an issue and judges have advised in many categories that this is now an integral part of undergraduate study. Therefore, removing metadata is a critical part of meeting the anonymity requirements for your submission as judges are looking at this as part of the review process. So failing to do so could result in your entry being disqualified, as anonymity is a key element in ensuring a fair judging process. Make sure to remove all metadata before submitting your PDF to maintain the integrity of the competition.

Do you have any other queries?

For queries pertaining to your submission process or the awards programme that can’t be answered with our FAQ’s or our online assistant (floating to your right on this page), contact us directly

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