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.