United World Colleges

The United World Colleges (UWC) are a group of twelve international schools. Founded during the Cold War, the United World College Movement aimed at promoting understanding between the different nations through education and through interaction between young people from different countries, living and working together. The UWC select students from around the globe at a pre-university level, selected on merit, regardless of their financial, ethnic, religious or educational background and regardless of their ability to pay.

The international organisation of UWC is a British based foundation that comprises twelve colleges in Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Norway, Singapore, Swaziland, the United States, Venezuela and the United Kingdom, and, as of August 2006, newly opened eleventh and twelfth Colleges in Costa Rica and Bosnia and Herzegovina ; National Committees in more than 130 countries; a network of more than 36,000 graduates and an International Office in London. The United World Colleges usually accept students who are between 16 to 18 years old, with exception of the ones in Singapore and Swaziland. Each UWC typically comprises between 200 and 300 students from about 90 different countries.

The first UWC, the Atlantic College, located in a 12th Century Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales, United Kingdom was founded in 1962 with the initiative of Kurt Hahn, a renowned German educationalist. His vision was based on his post-war experience at the NATO, where discussion between former enemies fascinated him. He wanted to transmit a spirit of mutual understanding to young people to help them overcome prejudice antagonism through living and working together.

Hahn envisaged a college educating boys and girls of age 16 to 19, from different origins. The selection would be based on personal motivation and potential, regardless of any social, economic or cultural factors. A scholarship programme would facilitate recruitment of young people from different economic backgrounds. The project was realised in 1962 with the inauguration of the Atlantic College in Wales.

Since 1967, under the presidency of Lord Mountbatten, new Colleges were founded in order to give more people access to the UWC system. In 1971 the United World College of South East Asia was established in Singapore, followed by the UWC of the Pacific in Canada in 1974. Under the presidency of Prince Charles, four more UWC were inaugurated: 1981 in Swaziland, 1982 in Italy and in the United States and 1988 in Venezuela. The rhythm accelerated with the foundation of three Colleges within five years: 1992 in Hong Kong, 1995 in Norway and 1997 in India, this rising the number of Colleges to ten. The eleventh and the twelfth College in Costa Rica and Bosnia & Herzegovina were opened in 2006.

The threat of an international conflict decreased with the end of the Cold War, but regional and inter-ethnic conflicts have since then increased. The UWC have been attempting to establish links between individuals of different ideologies and perspectives. Their mission is to answer Lester B. Pearson's interrogation: "How can there be peace without people understanding each other; and how can this be if they don't know each other?"

Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan has been President of the United World Colleges since 1995. Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been the honorary president of the UWC since 1999.

Microcredit Summit Campaign

The Microcredit Summit started in February of 1997. More than 2,900 people from 137 countries gathered in Washington, DC to launch a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families. With training in self-employment and the help of many financial institutions and business services, they initially strived to reach the women of these poor families. That goal was almost reached in November of 2006, causing the Campaign to be re-launched and extended until 2015 with two new goals:

Goal #1: Working to ensure that 175 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015

Goal #2: Working to ensure that 100 million families rise above the US$1 a day threshold adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), between 1990 and 2015.

The core themes of the Microcredit Summit Campaign are:

• Reaching the poorest
• Reaching and empowering women
• Building financially self-sufficient institutions
• Ensuring a positive, measurable impact on the lives of clients and their families

The Campaign brings together microcredit practitioners, advocates, educational institutions, donor agencies, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and others involved with microcredit to promote best practices in the field, to stimulate the interchanging of knowledge, and to work towards reaching our goals.

2005 Statistics:

• 3,133 microcredit institutions have reached 113,261,390 clients
• 81,949,036 of these clients were among the poorest of the poor
• Of these poorest clients, 84.2 percent are women
• By the end of 2005, around 410 million family members have been positively affected through Microcredit.

A Success Story through Microcredit Summit Campaign:

La Maman Mole Motuke lived in a wrecked car in a suburb of Kinshasa, Zaire with her four children. If she could find something to eat, she would feed two of her children; the next time she found something to eat, her other two children would eat. When organizers from a microcredit lending institution interviewed her, she said that she knew how to make chikwangue (manioc paste), and she only needed a few dollars to start production. After six months of training in marketing and production techniques, Maman Motuke got her first loan of US $100, and bought production materials. Today, Maman Motuke and her family no longer live in a broken-down car; they rent a house with two bedrooms and a living room. Her four children go to school consistently, eat regularly, and dress well. She currently is saving to buy some land in a suburb farther outside of the city and hopes to build a house.

United World College of the Adriatic

United World College of the Adriatic (UWCAD) is a part of the United World Colleges. The school, which is in the village of Duino, near Trieste and Monfalcone in North-Eastern Italy, was founded in 1982, by the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with the support of the Italian Government. The school has 200 students from about 80 different countries, who study the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (a programme that prepares students for university studies) for two years.

All students attending the United World College of the Adriatic are scholarship holders and the scholarship covers all costs for full board and tuition for the two years. The students are selected by national selection committees, on the basis of academic achievement, leadership potential, extracurricular activities and personal qualities. Students at the college are eligible, after graduation, to participate in the Shelby Davis Scholarship programme, which funds undergraduate study for UWC students at universities, such as Harvard University, Princeton University or Columbia University, in the United States.

The Italian National Commission for the United World College is under the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic. It is responsible for communication with the international organisation and for the selection of Italian pupils, chosen exclusively on merit, who receive study grants for their two years at the College.

At present 25% of its pupils come from developing countries, 25% from eastern Europe (including two pupils from Serbia and two from Bosnia and Herzegovina), 25% from Italy and 25% from other industrialised countries. The geographical location of the Duino College makes it a meeting point for the Latin, Germanic and Slav cultures and gives it a special role in relations with eastern and central European countries.During the civil war in the former Yugoslavia pupils from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia led, and continue to lead, a harmonious life together in the United World College of the Adriatic.

The students are all admitted on the basis of a severe selection process conducted in their home countries and come to the College with the assistance of a study grant. They are chosen exclusively according to merit, irrespective of family income, race, language or religion.

The United World College provides courses of the highest academic quality in a special educational environment. The curriculum includes the final two years of secondary education leading to the award of the International Baccalaureate, a qualification recognised by a great many universities, including the most prestigious in the world. The College’s working language is English, but pupils are also given Italian language lessons. Respect for pupils’ cultural identity is ensured by the practice and study of their native languages through the system of language tutors. About 30 native languages and literatures are taught in the College. A full-time teaching staff is recruited internationally and a number of teachers are appointed directly by their respective governments.

Academics

Since 1972 the sole academic programme has been the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. The College was influential in the creation of the International Baccalaureate and continues to be actively involved in its development. The average pupil at Atlantic College scores 37 in their IB diploma, a full 10 points higher than the worldwide average. This high level of academic attainment is reflected in the destinations of the school's graduates.

Graduates are typically accepted at the most competitive colleges and universities around the world. Most students take up places at American Universities such as Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University. Many other students attend British Universities such as Oxford University, Cambridge University and the University of Edinburgh. Students at the college are eligible, after graduation, to participate in the Shelby Davis Scholarship programme, which funds undergraduate study (based on need) for UWC students at universities in the United States.

Electronics Engineering Technology Degree

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textbook in Boston College

At many colleges and universities, wikis are used mostly as a supplement to primary teaching tools like textbooks and labs, while other Web 2.0 technologies -- such as social networking sites like Facebook -- have become a staple of student life.

In one Boston College professor's classroom, however, wikis have become a primary learning tool, replacing textbooks and allowing improved collaboration among students. The wiki is even used to let students submit possible questions for examinations, many of which actually appear on tests.

Gerald Kane, assistant professor of information systems at the Chestnut Hill, Mass., school, has been using a wiki from SocialText Inc. as the primary teaching tool in his classroom since October, relying on the technology to integrate content from other Web 2.0 technologies like social book-making tools, RSS systems, and Google for his "Computers in Management" courses.

"[The wiki] has become a really robust tool and has changed the way I teach, primarily because it means I am more of a guide to them rather than a lecturer," Kane said. "My job is to teach them how to navigate this information on the Web. The wiki is now the basis and the platform on which my class is based."

For example, before students submit papers to Kane, they can post them on the wiki to be reviewed by other students.

"The students are able to revise them before they submit them into me for grading," he said. "I went back and compared students who revised papers based on peer feedback to those who didn't. Those who did got a grade bump higher."

In addition, Kane does not write his own exam questions, but instead allows students to post suggested exam questions and submit answers to the wiki. Other students can edit the answers if they feel they are wrong. Some 350 exam questions have been generated using this tactic, he said.

"For the last couple of sessions, 100% of the exam has come from student questions," Kane added. "Students see the entire test beforehand but they don't know what questions I am going to [use]."

Some recent research surveys have found that some companies are investing in wikis, but the technology is used less heavily than other Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds and social networks. For example, only 33% of executives surveyed by McKinsey & Co. for a report issued in March said that their companies are investing in wiki technologies. The survey concluded that companies are investing more heavily in Web services, RSS, podcasts, social networking and peer-to-peer networking

But Kane noted that because the wiki is collaborative and dynamic -- he and his students can update it as quickly as world events change -- it is a much better classroom tool than a texbook.

"My wiki is my textbook now," he said. "This platform is infinitely better and gets better information from a variety of sources. It takes a year and half for a textbook to get published, and by the time that happens it is outdated. [The use of] textbooks will begin to fade ... and these more collaborative-based, environment will probably rise to the surface."