UWC is a unique organization. It is the only global educational NGO that brings students together from all over the world, selected from within their own countries, on merit and regardless of their ability to pay. These students come together at one of eighteen UWC schools and colleges that aim to foster international peace and understanding.

UWC believes that to achieve peace and a sustainable future, the values it promotes are crucial;

• International and intercultural understanding
• Celebration of difference
• Personal responsibility and integrity
• Mutual responsibility and respect
• Compassion and service
• Respect for the environment
• A sense of idealism
• Personal challenge
• Action and personal example

Each College offers selected students a two-year course of study before entry into University.

In addition to academics, the program of activities emphasises concern for others through community service activities. Emphasis is also placed on outdoor adventures and creative pursuits. Students attending UWC sit for the International Baccalaureate examinations at the end of the two years.

The IB Diploma is recognised for university entrance worldwide.

Eligible candidates are usually those who have just sat the senior four exams in the most recent UCE siting and aged 16 to 17 in August of the year of application and should demonstrate the following qualities:

• Intellectual curiosity: You love learning about the world around you - both inside and outside the classroom. You have at least one academic area that you are passionate about, and would like to explore further. You are able to recognise global and local issues, and analyse them critically. 
• Active commitment to your own values and those of UWC: You share UWC’s values and show a commitment to follow UWC’s code of conduct. You have humility and the ability to listen to, and value, other people’s opinions. You appreciate that although others may have different points of view, they may also be right. You promote UWC’s values in your daily life, and act as a global citizen of the world.
• Social competence: You interact respectfully with others, understanding and appreciating their viewpoints and perspectives, and you are able to work within a team to find solutions to problems. You know how to express yourself appropriately in different situations and to different people.
• Resilience, self-awareness and independence: You can look after yourself physically and emotionally during challenging situations, for example in a boarding school environment. You have developed good coping strategies, and you are not easily overwhelmed. You also know when to ask for help for yourself, and for others. 
• Personal responsibility and integrity: You can express and examine your own values, and you are ready to contrast and reflect on them in comparison to the values of others. The way you behave within your family and community reflects your values and beliefs. You can communicate your own needs and are mindful of those of others, demonstrating a sense of communal responsibility.
• Academic robustness: You have the potential to meet the rigorous demands of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme or the International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme.

It is important that candidates should be thoroughly articulate so that they may be able to advance their own views and those of their country, of which they will be seen as representatives. Every student sent to a UWC must be of the quality one would like to see representing his or her own country alongside very carefully selected students from other countries. Experience has shown that successful students are those who come with a clear awareness of the aims of the UWC and a personal commitment to contribute to them.

Candidates must:

• Be Ugandan. (Non-Ugandans resident in Uganda may apply either through their own national committees or directly to individual UWCs through the Global Selection Programme. Refugees resident in Uganda are also welcome to apply - especially vis-à-vis the availability of refugee scholarships).
• Be between the ages of 14 and 17 by August of the year of application.
• Have demonstrated outstanding academic ability or potential.
• Have completed S4 or an equivalent O’ Level examination.
• Special scholarships available for S3 or equivalent as well.

2024 Applications Now Open