Each year, more than 1,000 students from more than 80 countries enter our student competition. One hundred of them qualify for the St. Gallen Symposium as Leaders of Tomorrow. The Academic Jury decides which hundred.

The Leaders of Tomorrow are the backbone of the St. Gallen Symposium;  they bring the though questions, the friction and the ideas that make cross-generational dialogue worth having. Of the 200 who attend, half are hand-selected for the Knowledge Pool. The other half qualify through the St. Gallen Symposium Global Ideas Competition, (Formerly Global Essay Competition), on the strength of their idea.

The review is kept as anonymous as possible by design. Submissions carry no name, no university and no country, so that only the quality of the idea decides. That independence is why we are thrilled to invite around 50  postgraduate students to read and assess all the contributions.

As a member of the Academic Jury, you decide which ideas reach the St. Gallen Symposium and you experience it yourself. You are invited to attend the Symposium in person as a Leader of Tomorrow, taking part in the same dialogue you helped shape and meeting the people behind the ideas you judged.

After more than thirty years, the essay alone no longer shows us how a student thinks. With AI assistants in everyday use, a written text cannot on its own establish who wrote it, or how well the author understands their own argument.

From the 56th St. Gallen Symposium onwards, participants submit two elements:

– a Solution Brief, a structured proposal of maximum 1,000 words with sources required, and
– a Video Explainer of maximum three minutes in which they present their idea in their own words, as if they had just run into their dream speaker at the Symposium.

For the Academic Jury, this changes the review. The written submissions are shorter and follow a defined structure, which makes them faster to read and more directly comparable.

If you have reviewed for us before, the change is significant but the task is unchanged. Read closely, judge the idea, decide who comes to St. Gallen.

What you will assess:

The review continues to run in rounds, beginning with the Solution Briefs (assessed anonymously) first and drawing on the videos from the second round onwards. And the video offers something the essay could not: the opportunity to assess whether an applicant can defend the idea they submitted.

We will confirm the exact structure and the criteria before the review opens, and brief all jurors at the kick-off meeting.

To become a member of the Academic Jury and participate as a Leader of Tomorrow in the 56th St. Gallen Symposium, you have to fulfill the following criteria:

• Currently pursuing a doctoral programme, working as a research assistant or already completed your doctoral studies (3 years ago at most) at the University of St.Gallen or at ETH Zurich
• Fluent in English (oral and in writing)
• Genuine interest in global affairs and in the opinions of the world’s top-class young academics
• Capability and capacity of reviewing a total of 50 contributions over three rounds according to a pre-defined set of criteria within a tight time schedule (beginning February until mid-April)
• Application Deadline: 30th November 2026

The jury of the 56th St. Gallen Symposium is required to attend two compulsory meetings, the kick-off and the final meeting:

• Hybrid kick-off meeting for all members: December 2026 (date tbc follows shortly)
• Reviews (remote work): beginning February until mid-April 2027
• Final meeting (in-person only): end-March 2027

While the Academic Jury is entrusted with a great deal of responsibility as it judges the opinions of future leaders from all around the world, single out the 100 best contributions for our essay competition and shortlist the very best contributions for the award, the Award Jury will decide on the winners of the competition. The authors of most outstanding ides will receive the opportunity to present their ideas on the main stage during the St. Gallen Symposium and will get in close contact with the members of the Award Jury.

The Award Jury consist of the following experts: