Short Course Information

United World College Short Courses foster international understanding and personal development by encouraging young people, selected on the basis of merit, to:

  1. Interact in a challenging and stimulating environment with others from a diverse mix of cultures.
  2. Take responsibility for their own actions both as individuals and as members of a community.
  3. Actively participate in community service and develop their understanding of chosen course themes.
  4. Consider their Short Course as the start of their active involvement in the UWC international movement, their National Committees and their own community.
Objective 1: Interaction, stimulation and challenge
The first objective embodies the belief that bringing together different cultures in a shared environment with a common purpose is an excellent way of fostering international understanding. A Short Course places participants in situations where they must work together to accomplish common tasks. Typically, they will encounter some issues where there are substantial differences between their cultures but more often they will find out how much they have in common. This belief motivated those involved in founding UWC in the period of the Cold War and is still central to the UWC international movement.

This objective requires course participants to represent a diverse mix of cultures. This should not be taken only to imply national cultures; there are cultural differences within some countries that are as significant as differences between countries. The Cyprus Short Course is a good example - the course has a strong bi-communal focus but participants are also drawn from other countries.

Objective 2: Taking responsibility
The second objective is based on the belief that individuals develop on a personal level when they are expected to take responsibility for their own actions. Within a supportive environment and at an age where they are becoming increasingly independent from the support structures of their families, participants are given responsibilities which they may not have held before. Hence, they will benefit from being placed in situations where they must act and bear responsibility for the consequences of their choice of action, and gain a great deal of confidence in their own ability. It is important to emphasise that where the consequences are undesired or unexpected, it does not represent a failure but an opportunity to learn from experience. Active learning can be a novelty to many of the participants, making the challenge even greater.

Personal development is not simply leadership training. Recognition of a capacity to lead might be the outcome for some of the participants, but others will realise their potential to contribute in other ways - for example, the capacity to listen, to help people on an individual basis or to plan events. No single outcome is more desirable than others.

It is also extremely important that the participants feel a sense of ownership of the course and that its success depends on their input and efforts. The Lithuanian Short Course is explored in more detail below and demonstrates how the participants increasingly take over the day-to-day running of the course as it progresses. This inspires confidence in the participants' potential to achieve the goals that they set for themselves as individuals or as a group. Although the staff withdraw from a direct controlling role as the course progresses, they still provide a safety net; the animateurs in particular play a vital role in this process and remain close to the participants to ensure that guidance is on hand whenever needed.

Objective 3: Active community service
Community Service has been a core activity within the UWC movement since its inception. It acknowledges the value of giving and of service, and can create a sense of value and worth. Community service also helps to expose participants to the local culture. Where a course theme is more specific, community service can be designed to accommodate this - eg. if the theme has an ecological focus the community service might involve conservation work. The cross feeding of practical experience and a more traditional academic approach to the theme will be of great benefit to the participants.

Objective 4: Beginning of UWC involvement
The final objective acknowledges that participants arrive with a great deal of enthusiasm and often leave with even more. In the early years of the Short Courses, Graduates often did not know where to turn once the course was over. One means of countering this is the Short Course Graduate Network which in some ways substitutes the natural affiliation which College Graduates have with their College. Short Course Graduates are encouraged to prepare and develop ideas/activities for the Network as an integral part of the course. The Short Course raises the participants' expectations because it shows them how powerful they can be when they take responsibility for their own actions.

Language The working language for Short Courses in Europe is English; service activities usually demand that students pick up at least a little of the local language. It is vital that participants have a competent command of the working language of the course, but fluency is not obligatory.