Academic Programme
The UWC classroom is situated firmly in the real world. Students from diverse backgrounds across the world enrich class discussions with personal knowledge and examples. A student from China might debate the efficacy of micro-credit as an instrument for economic development with a classmate from Ghana; design a cost-efficient water purifier with a friend from Denmark; or build a theatre set with a classmate from Chile. Students will be encouraged to take action based on their learning as part of the inquiry cycle.
At UWC Changshu China, students will also explore how they have come to know what they know, and learn to critically examine the sources and validity of their knowledge.
* Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its three academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), or the Diploma Programme (and in addition the IB Career-related Certificate). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org
Pre-DP Programme
Grade 10
Conceived as a foundational programme, the Pre-DP Programme will have strong English language and critical thinking components, in addition to classes in Chinese language and literature, Mathematics, the experimental sciences, the social sciences, and the arts.
IB Diploma Programme
Grades 11 and 12
UWC Changshu China is a candidate school for the IB Diploma Programme and pursuing authorization as an IB World School.*
The IB Diploma Programme (DP) is a globally-recognized, challenging pre-university programme for students in Grades 11 and 12.
It is often compared to Advanced Placement courses or to the Cambridge A Levels, but the IB Diploma Programme is especially favoured by UWC schools and colleges because the IB educational programmes share the values of the UWC movement. The DP has a strong international outlook while emphasising that students must understand and value their cultural identity; in addition, the programme helps greatly in cultivating students' critical thinking capacity.
DP students at UWC Changshu China choose to study one subject from each of six subject groups as follows:
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Group 1: Literature
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All students will study literature in the student’s own native language
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Group 2: Language acquisition
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The student studies a second or foreign language of his or her choice at an appropriate level
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Group 3: Social Sciences
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Chinese Studies
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Economics
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Geography
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History
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Environmental Systems and Societies
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Group 4: Experimental Sciences
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Physics
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Chemistry
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Biology
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Environmental Systems and Societies
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Group 5: Mathematics
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Higher Level
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Standard Level
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Mathematical Studies
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Further Maths
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Group 6: The Arts (or a selective from one of the other 5 group subjects)
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Visual Art
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Music
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Theatre
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Students will choose to study three subjects at Standard Level and three at Higher Level (Higher Level classes allow students to examine a particular subject in greater depth).
In addition to these six subjects, all students will also participate in the core DP course Theory of Knowledge, where they will critically examine the construction of knowledge across different disciplines. Students will also write an extended essay of about 4,000 words (depending on the language in which the essay is written) in a discipline and on a topic of their choice.
UWC and the IB
UWC has played a pivotal role in the creation and development of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma.
UWC Atlantic College was one of the three schools that created the IB Diploma in the 1960s.
Since then, UWC schools and colleges have continued to contribute significantly to the IB. There has been much cross-fertilisation between UWC and the IB, with UWC teachers taking on roles as IB examiners and workshop leaders, serving on curriculum review committees and so on. Curriculum that UWC teachers had designed for their colleges have also been validated and offered by the IB.