CEFA proudly announces the finalists including winners and commended students of the 2008 Governor-General’s Undergraduate Essay Competition. The Hon Justice Dyson Heydon AC hosted the final judging in his Sydney Chambers of the High Court of Australia on 22 July, 2009.
His Honor’s distinguished colleagues in judging were Dame Leonie Kramer AC DBE (CEFA Trustee and Former Chancellor of the University of Sydney), Mr Malcolm Mackerras AO, Mrs Kerry Jones (CEFA Executive Director) and Dr Peter Gerangelos (Senior Law Lecturer, USyd Law School). The panel was assisted by Joel Williams, CEFA Scholar and Phuong Van, CEFA Administrator, (Constitution Education Fund-Australia). 2008 was the first year in the competition that a combination of legal and humanities questions were offered.
CEFA is delighted to announce the questions for the 2009 Governor-General’s Undergraduate Essay Competition are now online. The nine questions cover a broad range of topics including constitutional matters, protection of the freedom of speech, Australian citizenship and religious practices and topical political and economic issues.
The competition is now in its sixth year and has awarded generous cash prizes to finalists in past years. Prize monies awarded each year are dependent on the sponsorship received annually for the competition. Essay responses are to be 2,500 words in length. The competition is open to Australian undergraduate students studying in all faculties at universities across Australia for all or part of 2009. The closing date of the competition is Monday, 14 December 2009, 5:00pm AEST.
Every year the competition is judged by a panel of distinguished individuals including High Court Justices and prominent academics. This prestigious competition provides students with the opportunity to be further recognised for their academic skill, talent and research.
CEFA encourages students to visit www.cefa.org.au regularly to review the latest updates regarding the competition. The primary contact for the competition is CEFA Research Scholar Joel Williams. Joel can be contacted at
On May 8 2009, CEFA continued its national professional development program for Australian teachers with a training day held at Firbank Grammar School, Brighton Victoria.CEFA’s Parliaments in Schools Director, Mr Don Perna, facilitated a workshop for Victorian primary and secondary schoolteachers at the Shared Learning Centre and showcased the capacity of class and school parliaments to address the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS Level 4 and Level 6)
Two of the latest reports into civics education, The University of Sydney’s Youth Electoral Study (YES) report and the University of Western Sydney’s Whitlam Institute report, demonstrate how poorly politics and civics are still taught in Australian schools. This is despite the millions of dollars spent by governments on civics education resources in recent years. Mrs Kerry Jones, The Executive Director of CEFA, responded to the reports by stating “The reports highlight an urgent need for practical civics projects that engage students in democratic processes rather than those that just teach them from text books”.
