A UWC education for peace
The United World College’s mission is to make education a force for peace and a sustainable future. Since the opening of the first UWC in Wales at the height of the Cold War in 1962, our schools, colleges and short courses have provided spaces where young people from around the world found ways to bridge political and cultural divides and build vibrant communities together. Many of our campuses have opened in particular locations due to UWC’s peace-based mission: The opening of UWC Adriatic on the Italian-Slovenian border in 1982 reflects the desire to build bridges across the Iron Curtain that divided Western and Eastern Europe. 1963 saw the opening of Waterford Kamhlaba, the first multi-racial school in Eswatini in protest against South Africa’s Apartheid regime, with Waterford later joining the UWC movement in 1981. UWC Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a deliberate attempt to present an integrated alternative to the country’s divided post-war education system and build bridges across a city that saw some of the worst fighting in the civil war following the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Regardless of where our campuses are located, peace education forms a key component of our mission and the student experience.
Our unique settings allow for a comprehensive approach to peace education, incorporating experiential learning in deliberately diverse communities and integrating our values of intercultural understanding and celebration of difference in all aspects of our curriculum.
In the classroom, the International Baccalaureate develops students’ critical thinking and allows for deep engagement with issues of peace and conflict past and present. This includes subjects such as Global Politics, History, Anthropology or Geography, where students learn to analyse causes and drivers of conflicts and explore approaches to their transformation. Beyond the humanities, students deepen their trans-disciplinary understanding of peace and conflict, for example, by exploring the power of narratives and communication in language and literature subjects and the arts.
Finally, in building an intentionally and deliberately diverse community, UWC provides a hands-on experience which extends beyond the classroom. Peace education is embedded as a core theme in our cocurricular activities, service projects and student initiatives. We look for and develop young changemakers who strive to have a real impact in the world. In this endeavour, students are presented with a vast variety of opportunities to explore peacebuilding and conflict transformation and hone important skills for social impact, such as design thinking, project planning, teamwork, ethical leadership and effective communication. Examples of campus-based initiatives for students and staff include regular global affairs discussions, peace councils, facilitated dialogue sessions, focus weeks, conferences and visits from former students. Many students develop ideas for social impact projects in their home communities and can apply for funding through competitions such as Go Make a Difference and the Young Aurora Prize. As part of community outreach, our schools and colleges work extensively with local organisations in areas such as refugee integration, intergenerational and intercommunity dialogue and gender equality, to name but a few. This outreach forms another building block in UWC’s extensive peace education offering.
UWC is a great example of what life in a peaceful community can look like and the care it takes from all of its members to make it thrive. Boarding students share common living spaces with peers and staff from all walks of life — a unique environment to learn from each other’s backgrounds and experiences. Our residential life programme celebrates this diversity and supports our students in navigating the challenges that naturally arise from living in such close quarters. Student agency is encouraged, with student residences having their own structures of student representation and governance. Students are trusted to organise workshops and speak about issues they are passionate about at community meetings, while staff are available to support.
A United World College education for peace does not end with graduation. Many of our graduates carry the experiences, values and skills they developed during their time at UWC with them into their academic, professional and personal pursuits, building a lifelong commitment to peace and sustainability.