If you won something in a UNI competition, here is what you actually receive and where to find it.
Awards on UNI are digital
There is no plaque and nothing is posted to you. An award gives you a certificate, a trophy on your profile, and your entry listed in the competition's results. Where a competition also carries a cash prize or a membership, those are handled separately through an award closure form, which asks for payment details and never for a postal address.
What you receive
1. A certificate. A result that carries merit produces a Certificate of Merit, ordinary participation produces a Certificate of Participation. You generate it yourself from the entry's Analytics page once the competition reaches the right stage, then download it as PDF or PNG from its own permanent page. That page carries a short verification link, and anyone can open it without an account. See Competition certificates: when they unlock, how to generate and download them for the exact steps.
2. A trophy on your profile. Award-carrying results add a trophy to your public profile, in a Competition Awards card grouped by award type with the competitions listed under each. Your profile also shows a total trophy count.
3. Your entry in the competition results. Award-winning entries appear on the competition's entries page, grouped under the award they won.
Award levels you may see
Each competition defines its own award structure, so the exact names vary. The ones in use on UNI include Winner (including per-category winners such as Bachelor's or Master's), Runner-up, Finalists, Honorable Mention, Special Mention, Citation, Editor's Choice, Jury Commendation, People's Choice Award, Organizer's Choice Award, Best in Category, Best in Region, and institutional awards such as the Institutional Excellence Award.
Shortlisted carries merit, so it earns a Certificate of Merit, but it is not counted as a trophy. A plain entry carries no merit and produces a Certificate of Participation.
Whether a result counts as a trophy, and whether it earns a Certificate of Merit, is set by the competition's award structure, not by you.
In a competition with dynamic entry fees that structure grows with the number of entries, so which of these names are in play at all depends on the round the competition finished in. See How competition awards are decided.
Cash prizes and memberships
A cash prize does not land in a wallet and nothing is sent automatically. Once the cash or membership attached to your award is recorded, you are emailed a link to your own award closure form. You fill in your details and choose bank transfer, PayPal or UPI, and the submission then moves through Submitted, Verified and Disbursed. If something is missing it comes back as Rejected with the reason, and you can correct it and resubmit.
You can follow every closure you have submitted at uni.xyz/accounts/settings/payout, in the Award Closures card. That card tracks closures you have already started, it is not where you begin one, so keep the emailed link.
How to check what you won
- Open uni.xyz/profile/edit/<your-username>/competitions to see all your entries and their status.
- Use Analytics on an entry for its ranking, its jury scores, and the certificate button once that is available.
- Your public profile shows your trophies and your total trophy count.
- The competition's own entries page lists published results.
- Or ask the assistant in chat: it can read your entries, tell you what each one won, explain why a certificate is not available yet, and generate the ones that are ready.
If you think a result is wrong or missing
Results are set by the competition's jury and organisers. If your entry shows no award but you were told you won, or the award name looks wrong, ask for a conversation with the UNI team and give the competition name and your entry.