The Sir John Ellis Student Prize is an established and highly regarded national prize for new student work on a topic within medical education. Besides being awarded the prize, winners will be invited to present their work at a plenary session of the ASME Annual Scholarship Meeting.
Eligible applicants
Applicants must be invidual members of ASME/JASME at the time of application. This is intended as an individual award for work carried out as part of an undergraduate degree in medicine. Exceptionally, the award may be made jointly to two undergraduate students for a collaborative project, provided each has made a substantial contribution.
Groups of more than two students will not be considered for this award; likewise, students who have collaborated with or received significant input from staff or graduate students/fellows will not be eligible. This does not exclude appropriate support and supervision from members of staff, which is encouraged.
All submissions must include a clear statement of the work done by the student and any supervision, support and collaboration involved.
Applicants should refer to our FAQ page to answer most questions about ASME award submissions.
Eligible projects
The Sir John Ellis Award is for students who have completed a project during a student-selected component or similar activity. There is a separate award for projects completed during an intercalation year (please see the ASME Intercalation Award). A winner and runner-up will be announced and each will receive a certificate.
Projects may include:
- Original research
- Detailed literature reviews
- Educational interventions
Submissions should be a description of a piece of work, survey, research or innovation in which the student has been directly involved, in the field of medical education. Candidates should aim to include the following:
- Aims
- Methods
- Outcomes
- Discussion of medical educational literature
- Reflection on personal development
The expectation is of a well-structured, purposeful and disciplined piece of work that will be of general interest to a medical education audience. Curricular innovations and new methods are welcomed but must include justification, appropriate references to literature and elements of evaluation – these may be more eligible for our innovation prizes.
Submissions must be original and not derived from any other body of work by the student or collaborators. The work must not have been submitted previously for any other award, presented at national or international meetings or published in full or in part in any medium.
It is expected that all projects have an element of evaluation or results at the time of submission. Those that do not have complete results will be marked according to our published mark scheme and their final score may be limited by this omission. We would recommend delaying submission to follow completion and evaluation of the project where possible.
- Applications should be made via the online submission form and should be anonymous (names of submitters should not be included in the submission documents)
- Submission documents should have the title of the submission at the start of the document
- The submission should be attached to the online application from and be an A4 pdf document (minimum font size 12pt, Arial font )
- You are also advised to include your extended summary (800 words), in addition to the main body of your work (3000 words) within the same document. (Tables, headings and references are not included in the word count)
- Furthermore, you are advised to include in addition to the main body of your work as an appendix, statements of participation for all those members of the group applying for the award
In order to maintain submitter anonymity whilst also establishing the participation and collaboration of each member in the appendix statement, the following format should be used:- Each member should be referred to by their primary medical title e.g. Foundation Year 1 Doctor; Medical Student Year 3 – followed by two initials, which will differentiate between members which may have the same professional title. This may be shortened to a suitable abbreviation after the first reference, providing this continues to allow differentiation between members. For example for a group of two the members may be referred to as: Foundation Year 2 Doctor CW (FY2 CW); Medical Student Year 3 ET (MS3 ET)
- All applicants must be a member of ASME at the time of submission. Non-members can join ASME online for a small fee and experience the host of other student member benefits of ASME
- Submissions via the online submission form should be received by 5pm, 17th March 2023
- All information required to enter this award is published on this webpage. No discussions regarding possible entries or results of the judging will be possible. Applicants should read the Awards FAQ page as it may help with queries about their submission
- ASME particularly welcomes applicants from diverse and under-represented backgrounds
- Applicants should refer to the Awards FAQ page prior to submission
Is my application suitable for this award?
We welcome your application. Please look carefully at the criteria provided to be sure your applicant team and application meet the stated criteria. Unfortunately, we cannot comment on whether specific applications or application ideas meet the criteria, since this is group decision made by a panel of reviewers, but do let us know if the criteria are unclear.
Deadline for submissions is 5pm, Friday 17th March 2023.
To view or download marking guidelines please click HERE
All submissions for JASME prizes will be assessed by two independent assessors, using strict criteria. Feedback will be provided by email on all eligible submissions. The decision of the assessors on eligibility and the awards is final and not open to question or challenge.
All information required to enter this award is published on this webpage. No discussions regarding possible entries or results of the judging will be possible.
Can I query the assessors’ decision regarding my application?
The assessors’ decision is final for all awards and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcome, other than providing the applicant with the result and the assessors’ feedback.
2023
Congratulations to Maria A Bantounou, University of Aberdeen with their submission Comparison of video demonstration alone versus combined video and in-person demonstration in medical undergraduate clinical skills teaching: a pilot study
2022
Congratulations to Heather McAdam of Edinburgh University with their submission Do the NHS Education Scotland Equality Priorities Reflect the Concerns of Doctors with Disabilities?
2021
Congratulations to Anna Harvey of King’s College London with their submission What does success mean to medical students who identify as widening participation? An informal stakeholder scoping study and narrative review
2020
Congratulations to Selina Robertson of University of Liverpool – the 2020 Sir John Ellis Student Prize winner
Selina won the 2020 prize for their paper Patient Narratives in Undergraduate Clinical Education
2019
Congratulations to Tristan Fraser of KCL – the 2019 Sir John Ellis Student Prize winner
Tristan won the 2019 prize for his paper: Peer Marking for Written Assessments
Tristan presented his paper in plenary session at the 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting. Please click here for more info
2018
Congratulations to Harry Preston of Newcastle University – the 2018 Sir John Ellis Student Prize winner in the intercalated category
Harry won the 2018 prize for his paper: Who do you think you are? PA student perceptions of professional identity formation
Congratulations to Joseph Salem of University of Bristol – the 2018 Sir John Ellis Student Prize winner in the SSM category
Joseph won the 2018 prize for his paper: Video-based Virtual Patient Journeys: Narrative, first-person videos as a novel teaching aid for students
Both prize winners presented in plenary sessions at the ASM 2018
2017
Congratulations to Michael Martin of Lancaster University – the 2017 Sir John Ellis Student Prize winner
Michael won the 2017 prize for his paper: Life after Medical School: Why Don’t Some Students Intend to Practise?
Michael presented his paper at the ASM 2017
2016
Winner of the 2016 Sir John Ellis Student Prize in the SSM category:
Undergraduate Pre-hospital Care Manuals
Ruth Gratton and Daniel Whitehouse, University of Aberdeen
Ruth and Daniel presented their paper at the ASM 2016