Academic Director; Global Essay Prize & unDebating Championship

The John Locke Institute is an independent educational organisation dedicated to inspiring and equipping exceptional students for academic and intellectual success. Through our prestigious summer schools, essay competitions, and residential courses in Oxford, Princeton, Georgetown, Singapore, Nanjing, Dubai, and Hong Kong, we cultivate a rigorous learning environment that fosters critical thinking, intellectual humility, and open‑minded discourse.

Our programmes bring together talented students and distinguished faculty, offering a unique platform for academic challenge and personal growth. By engaging with complex ideas and refining their reasoning skills, students develop the confidence to excel in their academic and professional journeys.

The John Locke Institute is looking to appoint an exceptional Academic Director to lead the Institute’s academic programmes and oversee our two student competitions: the Global Essay Prize and the un Debating Championship. Academic Directors are responsible for the leadership of the Institute’s summer schools and intellectual life. Under the strategic direction of the Senior Academic Director, they design curricula, oversee faculty and preceptors, uphold the Institute’s distinctive pedagogical standards, and ensure the intellectual rigour of our teaching.

The Academic Director serves as Senior Programme Director (Academic Host) at four academic residential programmes per year, in addition to teaching at other programmes led by different Academic Directors. As Senior Programme Director, you will serve as the senior member of a three-person leadership team at each summer school, working alongside the Events Manager and Residential Director.

In addition, this Academic Director takes direct responsibility for the John Locke Institute’s Global Essay Prize and the John Locke Institute’s un Debating Championship.

• Lead the academic programme as Programme Director at four summer schools annually. Create detailed timetables for summer schools, coordinating lecture titles, descriptions, and pre‑reading.
• Liaise with faculty on biographies, safeguarding training, contracts, payments, travel, and hospitality.
• Introduce faculty, set the intellectual tone at the summer school, and ensure seminars and precepts meet the Institute’s standards.
• Deliver the welcome lecture, valedictory lecture, and some of the precepts (small discussion groups).
• Oversee the grading of students, ensuring consistent and accurate assessment.

• Recruit, train, and supervise guest lecturers, preceptors (graduate students and early‑career academics), and interns.
• Observe and assess preceptors' teaching, and ensure they contribute to both pre‑programme and post‑programme online seminars.
• Enforce the Institute’s distinctive pedagogical house style:
  • Submission of faculty materials in advance for approval.
  • Precept formats emphasising dialogue, rigour, and intellectual humility.

• Gather structured feedback from students and faculty, and liaise with Marketing and Admissions to act on it.

• Conduct admissions interviews, modelling the Institute’s intellectual tone and expectations.
• Liaise with the Admissions Team to secure the very best candidates, irrespective of family means.

• Teach at eight to ten summer schools per year (lectures, seminars, precepts, tutorials).
• Contribute to research projects, including commissioning and editing policy papers.

• Oversee the world's leading essay competition, protecting its integrity whilst expanding its scope.
• Recruit and coordinate with examiners, managing the examination process with timely results.
• Suggest annual essay questions in collaboration with subject experts.
• Interview shortlisted candidates to verify authenticity of submissions.
• Coordinate with the Academic Administrator to manage logistics, communications, and winner announcements.
• Develop strategies to expand the competition's reach while maintaining rigorous standards.