Registration for the Philosophy Essay Competition (PEC) 2025 officially opened on May 10 and will continue until June 17, 2025. This competition provides a platform for students and university students across Indonesia to express their philosophical ideas in essay form. With the theme “Open Science, For Whom?”, PEC 2025 aims to raise awareness among participants about the importance of equal access to knowledge.
“As digital natives, Indonesian youth can play a key role in realizing the idea of more Open Science. The knowledge revolution can be achieved through developing alternative knowledge platforms, advocating for local knowledge which is often marginalized, and fostering awareness of epistemic justice that is frequently overlooked,” explained Faculty of Philosophy lecturer and PEC 2025 Committee Chair, Rangga Kala Mahaswa, S.Fil., M.Phil.
There are two competition categories this year: the High School/Equivalent Category — open to active students in grades 10 and 11 — and the University Student Category — open to active Diploma and Bachelor’s degree students. To be officially registered as PEC participants, eligible students and university students must complete an online registration form, submit a statement of originality, and upload all required documents via the registration link.
Participants are free to choose essay titles that align with the theme. Essays should be a maximum of ten pages, including an introduction, discussion, conclusion, and bibliography. Manuscripts must be written in Indonesian, contain no hate speech, be original individual works (not group works), never published before, and never have won any previous competitions.
Rangga added that submissions need to demonstrate a high level of critical, analytical, and argumentative depth with a strong focus on the issues presented, and are expected to include relevant solutions. Proper citation and bibliography formatting are also important points that require attention.
After the submission deadline on June 17, the selection and evaluation process will take place from June 21 to June 30, 2025. Essays will be assessed based on title or theme relevance; organization and structure; sufficiency, sharpness of analysis and argumentation, connections between ideas; editing and language quality; and adequacy and reliability of data and references. The results will be announced on July 10, 2025.