[1] The award is open to all past and present students of a university in New Zealand, except previous winners who are excluded for a period of five years.
It was established in 1943 in memory of Philip Foster Neill, a medical student at the University of Otago who died during the polio outbreak of 1943.
In the first year of the prize, 1944, the topic was for a prelude (or fantasia) and fugue for either piano or organ.
Douglas Lilburn was publicly awarded the first prize of £25 on 25 June 1944, with Harry Luscombe of Auckland the runner-up.
[2] It is the longest continuously running award of its kind in New Zealand.