Over 50 years after the founding of the first UWC college in 1962, the UWC movement continues to educate young people with its mission to “make education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.”
But is this true? Researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education want to know, and to help find out they have launched the most important study in the history of the UWC movement: Harvard’s UWC Impact Study.
The study, being conducted over four years, seeks to determine whether UWC graduates become forces for a more peaceful and sustainable world. The study’s findings will enable the UWC movement to improve its educational program with a view to strengthening the UWC mission. The results are expected to be of interest to the wider educational community as well.
The study consists of two strands. The first is a longitudinal study of two cohorts of students from their entry into the first year of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program through their UWC graduation.
The second strand concerns UWC school and college IB Diploma Program (IBDP) alumni, who are being asked to contribute to the study by participating in an online survey and/or interview in order to help the researchers understand how a UWC education impacts UWC graduates’ lives, and whether it affects the impact UWC alums are having on society or their communities.
Alumni will also have the chance to sign up for an interview with the researchers, which will provide the study with even more valuable insights into individual UWC experience.
Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is conducting the Impact Study with absolute independence and responses will remain completely anonymous.
We are asking all UWC IBDP alumni to take the survey today. We are counting on alumni to help us improve UWC – every voice matters!
For more information about Harvard’s UWC Impact Study and the alum survey, including its methodology, click here. Questions? Contact communications@uwcio.uwc.org.