2025 AAPAE Tertiary Ethics Olympiad
Please register a team (or teams) at the bottom of this page.
This event started as a university-based US initiative in 1993. The “Ethics Bowl” continues to be a popular competition today, culminating in the annual Intercollegiate US Ethics Bowl. The Ethics Olympiad was created in 2013 for gifted High School students to promote the study of Philosophy in Australasia. It has a proven track record of providing educators with a creative vehicle for developing skills in communication, critical thinking and respectful discourse while dealing with important ethical issues.
We ran the first Tertiary Ethics Olympiad in 2022. In 2023 we entered into an arrangement with the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics (AAPAE) which effectively renamed the event and provided institutional support for the event into the future.
The Third AAPAE Ethics Olympiad will be held via Zoom on the 9th of October 2025. Undergraduate students are invited to represent their tertiary institution. Any tertiary institution can participate, but there is a maximum of two teams from each institution allowed to enter. During the day, all will be involved in a series of three heats where they will be scored according to set criteria that reward, clear, concise, respectful discourse around interesting ethical cases. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded to the top three teams. Please fill in the form at the bottom of this page to enter a team or teams.
Date of the 2025 Tertiary Ethics Olympiad
Thursday, October 9th 2025
Start and Finish Times:
• 8 am – Western Australia, Singapore & Hong Kong
• 10 am – Queensland
• 10.30 am – South Australia & Northern Territory
• 11 am – ACT, N.S.W, Tas & Victoria
• 1 pm – New Zealand
Finish times:
• 12.30 pm – Western Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong
• 2.30 pm – Queensland
• 3 pm – South Australia and Northern Territory
• 3.30pm– ACT, N.S.W, Tas & Victoria
• 5.30pm– New Zealand
Program for the Day:
Note: As we are all in different time zones we are not going to refer to times of the day.
– Welcome & Preparation – 20 minutes – Main Zoom Foyer
– Heat One – 1 ¼ hours Breakout Rooms
– Break – 15 minutes
– Heat Two – 1 ¼ hours Breakout Rooms
– Break – 10 minutes
– Announcements – 5 minutes
– Heat Three – 1 ¼ hours Breakout Room
– Finish Team Photos and Thankyous
Registration Fee
Once registered we will send you the cases, training resource kits and an invoice. The registration fee is $50 (AUD) per student, $250 AUD per team. Universities can enter one or two teams. Please note there are a limited number of teams that can participate.
Format, Rules & Scoring
The heats use the same format as the Ethics Bowl in the US. The main difference is that all teams will be participating online in zoom breakout rooms. There will be a round-robin format with different teams from throughout Australasia participating against each other. Scores will be private on the day, but we will email the final results to each coach following the event. University-based philosophers from throughout the world judge the heats throughout the day.
Coaches Training Kit- Included in the kit will be the eight ethical cases, score sheets, criteria, format details and other useful information. Students kits will also be available.
Eligible participants
- Teams must consist of students enrolled as Undergraduate students in a tertiary institution in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or Hong Kong. Each team must include a team coach…who is usually a postgrad student at the same university.
REGISTRATION
We are now taking registrations for 2025. (Thursday, October 9th) Please enter your details below in order to enter a team or teams.