Statement from the Provost on the original Magna Carta discovery at Harvard Law School
Oriel College awards Rex Nettleford Essay Prize
20 May 2025
The UK-wide competition invites year 12 pupils to engage with the legacies of colonialism
Oriel College has today (Tuesday 20 May) announced the winners of the 2025 Rex Nettleford Essay Prize. Held annually since 2022, the UK-wide competition invites year 12 pupils to submit essays on the legacies of colonialism.
Batu Osmanoğlu and Alex Kotecha have received the top prizes for submitting the best essays. Anoushka Maraj, Isabelle Chadwick-Jones and Matilda Kraft have been awarded commendations.
Dr Nicholas Gaskill, Tutorial Fellow in English, Oriel College, said: “We had a record number of submissions this year, and the winners stood out for their surprising, nuanced, and carefully argued discussions of the legacies of colonialism.
“Huge congratulations to Alex and Batu, and to Anoushka, Isabelle, and Matilda, for their highly commended essays.”
All five of the winners have been invited to attend the 2025 Rex Nettleford Lecture on Colonialism and its Legacies at Oriel College on Thursday 22 May.
After the lecture the winners will be presented with certificates, before joining this year’s speaker, Orwell Prize in Journalism recipient Gary Younge, for a formal dinner at the college.
Overall, 135 pupils entered the 2025 Rex Nettleford Essay Prize.
In 2025, one of the two top prizes up for grabs was earmarked for a pupil from a non-selective state school in one of the seven UK link regions where Oriel College directs most of its outreach work, supporting pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who aspire to higher education study.
Read the winners’ essays: