The core of a UWC education: learning from and with each other

What does it look like when students from over 90 different countries attend the same school, have different levels of education and use different learning methods?

Diverse, committed and motivated

English is the language of instruction at our school, with around 60 other languages being spoken on campus. Some of our students already have a good command of English on arrival, others start from almost zero. Our learning and teaching methods embrace diversity in the classroom and encourage students to think critically, drive their own learning and become more culturally aware.

 

Diversity as a Catalyst

The heterogeneity of the students is seen as an opportunity at all UWC schools: Learner autonomy is promoted when the students themselves become teachers. Personal sense-making is created when young people begin to ask questions. A sense of community is formed through shared values – despite different backgrounds. At our school, students learn to engage with people in an increasingly globalized, rapidly changing world.

Life in a boarding school
Education

Holistic Education

Students complete the International Baccalaureate (IB Diploma), an internationally recognized qualification, within two years at the College. However, education at a UWC is much more than what is taught by the IB: based on the ideas of founder Kurt Hahn, holistic education is primarily intended to be transformative. Through intercultural exchange, young people learn to develop empathy for others and to overcome personal crises through reflection. They become aware of their own and others’ assumptions and learn to reflect on them – this learning involves a change in fundamental values, attitudes and actions.

More about the IB Diploma Program

This type of education encourages a balanced development of human potential in intellectual, moral, aesthetic, emotional, social, spiritual and physical terms.

UWC’s educational concept combines academic and extracurricular elements

The CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) program specifically promotes the individual skills of each student and the handling of responsibility. There is a strong focus on social service: helping others, getting involved in the community, showing commitment. These are important elements in teaching young people responsibility and compassion.

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Sustainability

If we want to empower our students to shape a sustainable future, we need to both inform and inspire them. Information about the challenges facing our planet is important. Students need to know what they are talking about and what actions will really make a difference, otherwise their actions will be ineffective and just make-believe. But just as important as this information is inspiring them – a love of nature, positive experiences with a sustainable lifestyle and the feeling that a better future is possible. Because hope is a stronger motivator than fear.

Tobi Kellner
Sustainability Coordinator
The topics of peace and sustainability are a central focus of the school

Addressed both in the curricula of the individual subjects and in extracurricular or additional events, they are part of the DNA of our school and the UWC movement and a reason to bring together so many people from different countries, cultures and religions: So that “they learn that a peaceful and sustainable world is possible and worth striving for, even in the face of great differences”, in the words of our Rector Dr. Helen White.

Learn more about our projects:

Since 2022, a 19-hectare piece of mixed forest near Kappel has been the official school forest of UWC Robert Bosch College: RBC students are working together with forestry educators from ForstBW to make the forest as sustainable as possible for the future. Once a week, a working group is on site to help with forest and tree work, install nesting boxes, watch the birds or even build a raised hide.

Global Affairs is a monthly lecture series that gives students insights into socio-politically relevant topics through guest speakers such as representatives from politics, research, culture or religion or through the students themselves, some of whom bring their own experiences to the discussion. Thanks to the worldwide UWC network of alumni, it is possible to bring experts from various fields to the College, for example BBC reporter Geoff White or human rights lawyer Maja Groff.

UWC Robert Bosch College is now also a Nature Park School: in September 2024, the Association of German Nature Parks recognized RBC for its work in the field of environmental education. As one of 34 nature park schools in the southern Black Forest region, RBC is part of a network of schools that provide students with a holistic approach to locally relevant topics and give them a practical understanding of the special features of nature and agricultural practices in the school environment. Five modules have been developed at RBC: The garden education program in our school garden, the school forest project, the Liveable cities of the future project week, the outdoor education program as a central element of experiential education in Kurt Hahn’s tradition and the linking of the nature park school idea with school subjects.

Many activities offered in the CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) extracurricular program have an explicit focus on sustainability. These include, for example, involvement in the school garden or the school forest, urban gardening and upcycling projects, support for external organizations such as the Freiburger Bachpaten, Zuka Solicafe’s climate kitchen or the Foodsharing Cafe. In 2020, the school won the City of Freiburg’s environmental award for its commitment. On campus, sustainability working groups with a focus on food, education, our garden and energy meet regularly and develop strategies to make our campus more sustainable and increase biodiversity.

The former monastery garden is a magical place. For over 500 years, the 2000 square meter area has been cultivated organically as a kitchen garden. Over the years, many rare plants have been preserved and new ones – for example from the home countries of our students – have been added to the mix. As part of the CAS program, students learn the basics of organic farming and take care of the garden, animals and trees on campus.

Once a year, the Liveable Cities Project Week, an interdisciplinary science format for first-year students, takes place at RBC. Through workshops, seminars and excursions, the students spend a week dealing with sustainable urban planning and end up creating their models of liveable cities of the future. A major focus is on cooperations with local institutions, which are visited during excursions or which come to the campus for workshops and input. Through Liveable Cities, the students learn both theoretically and practically which factors are needed to make cities liveable and sustainable.

Intensive engagement with core areas of intercultural coexistence: four times a year, we organize Special Focus Days at the College. They offer space for dialogue and intensive engagement with central topics such as religion, politics and democracy, peace and injustice or sustainability. Instead of classes, students organize seminars and workshops together with teachers, invite external speakers or design interactive sessions.

We offer the following Special Focus Days:

  • Sustainability
  • Interfaith Dialogue
  • Equality and Inequality
  • Model United Nations

UWC Robert Bosch College is a Global Ethics School: first recognized in 2016, RBC is part of a nationwide network of schools committed to inter-religious dialogue and peace. Based on the ideas of its founder, Hans Küng, the Global Ethics Foundation shows ways in which these values can be lived and experienced. At RBC, the Interfaith Special Focus Day is an example of how these values are taught to students at our school.