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1. General Rules
1.1. Each team must comprise a minimum of 3 members and a maximum of 4 members.
1.1.1. Each participant can only join a maximum of one team.
1.1.2. Each participant must be below the age of 30 years old to be eligible for participation.
1.1.3 There are no educational requirements to be eligible for participation.
1.1.4. Each team can only make one submission.
1.2. All deadlines must be strictly adhered to. Failure to do so may result in disqualifications.
1.3. All teams must select a team name by which they will be known throughout the competition. The team name should not identify any of the individual team members.
1.4. The composition of a team must remain unchanged throughout the competition. In extenuating circumstances, requests to change the composition of a team will be considered by the SPEX 2021 Committee on a case-by-case basis.
1.4.1. Teams requesting changes to their composition must put their request in writing, explaining fully the reason for the required change. This notice must be sent to the SPEX2021 Committee as soon as practical, and no later than 24 hours after the event that necessitates the change. The address for correspondence is: spex.smu@gmail.com.
1.4.2. Permission for changes to team composition and the team’s ongoing participation in the competition will be at the complete discretion of SPEX2021 Committee.
1.4.3. The team’s ongoing participation in the competition may require the team to recruit new team members to replace any members who have withdrawn.
1.5. The case will be multi-disciplinary and may cover topics including but not limited to: public policy, economics and social affairs.
1.6. Teams must prepare the case independently. Teams are not permitted to discuss the case with, or obtain help from, anyone outside their registered team until the conclusion of the case competition.
1.7. Teams are not allowed to engage in plagiarism. Any relevant information used from academic papers, journals etc. must be referenced according to APA citation style.
1.8. Prizes will be awarded at the Finals as follows to the top 3 teams:
1.8.1. Prizes worth $500, $300 and $200 will be awarded to teams placing first, second and third respectively. More concrete details will be disseminated to the winning teams following the Finals, with instructions on how to receive the prizes.
1.9. Time Zones: All time and date information disseminated by SPEX2021 is given in Singapore Standard Time (GMT +8).
2. Competition Structure
2.1. SPEX 2021 will consists of 2 rounds:
2.1.1. 1st round: Submission of a policy memo
2.1.2. 2nd round: Selected teams will progress to Round 2 to pitch their policy memo to a panel of judges and answer any queries the panel may have.
2.2. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, SPEX 2021 Case Competition will be delivered completely online with zero face-to-face contact between different teams, judges and organising committee.
3. Registration
3.1. Registration opens 19th June 2021, Saturday and closes on 16th July, Friday.
4. Round 1 (Submission of Policy Memo)
4.1. Following the case launch on 19th July 2021, case materials will be emailed to each team and posted on SPEX 2021 site.
4.2. Using the information provided in the case materials which will be disseminated on 19th July, teams will be required to produce a policy memo no longer than 4000 words (excluding references, footnotes and headers) with an accompanying cover page, detailing the team name (1 page).
4.3. All submissions must either be in PDF or DOCX. All other file formats will be rejected.
4.4. The policy memo must be submitted by 11.59pm, 23rd August 2021, e-mailed to spex.smu@gmail.com
4.5. A judging panel will select the top 6 teams to proceed to the final round. Teams will be informed of the selection to the next round via email by 11.59pm Friday, 10th September 2021.
4.5.1. The panel reserves the discretion to select fewer than 6 teams to proceed.
5. Round 2 (Final Presentation)
5.1. There will be no observers allowed for the Preliminary Finals. Team members are not permitted to watch presentations preceding their own presentation.
5.2. Teams’ presentation slides are the only required deliverables for the judging panel.
5.2.1. By 12:00 am (SGT) on Saturday 18th September, teams must electronically submit a copy of their slide deck to be used for presentation during the Finals in PowerPoint format, e-mailed to spex.smu@gmail.com.
5.2.2. Teams also have the option, but are not required, to include content such as page covers, appendices, graphs and backup slides.
5.3. Teams will be judged, according to set criteria, by a panel of esteemed industry experts and academic staff.
5.4. Each team will be allowed 20 minutes, as follows:
• 10 minutes – Presentation.
• 10 minutes – Question and answer session (only questions from judges are permitted during this time).
5.5. The Finals (Saturday, 18th September 2021) will be recorded. Team members may be featured in resulting promotional material.
5.6. A comprehensive document detailing the specific information and instructions for Round 2 will be sent to the finalists upon announcement of the selected teams.
6. SPEX Appeals Committee
6.1. The SPEX Appeals Committee will deal with any issues relating to rules and equity of the competition.
6.2. The Appeals Committee will be guided by the letter and the spirit of the rules of the competition, and the norms of fair play and good gamesmanship.
6.3. Appeals must be submitted to the SPEX Appeals Committee by email to spex.smu@gmail.com as soon as possible before the final round. During the Finals, should the team wish to appeal, a written document must be submitted no later than 30 minutes after the judging panel’s decision has been announced.
6.4. The Appeals Committee has the power to:
6.4.1. Take action as deemed appropriate.
6.4.2. Issue a reprimand.
6.4.3. Disqualify a team member from the competition.
6.4.4. Disqualify a team from the competition.
6.5. The Appeals Committee’s decision is final.
*Violation of any of the above rules may result in disqualification of a team or team member.
*The competition organisers, SPEX 2021 Organising Committee, reserves the right to make slight amendments or additions to the above rules if deemed necessary. Due notice will be given in such a case.