The United World College Maastricht (UWCM) is a

United World College United World Colleges (UWC) is an international network of schools and educational programmes with the shared aim of "making education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future." The organization was founde ...

located in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The school was established in 2009 and moved to a new campus in the Maastricht neighbourhood of Amby in 2013.

History

Established in September 2009, the school originates from a merger of the

International School Maastricht The International School of Maastricht is based in the city of Maastricht in the south of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg, Netherlands. The school shares a building with the Bernard Lievegoed School, a Waldorf education, Waldorf school for student ...

and the International Primary School Joppenhof. The school was the 12th member in the family of United World Colleges. In September 2013 the school moved to a new campus in the Maastricht neighbourhood of Amby. The founder of UWC movement Kurt Hahn once said if a school were a ship, then student should be seen as the crew members and not as the passengers on board.

Principal characteristics

UWC Maastricht currently has approximately 900 students between the ages of 2 and 18. They originate from more than 100 countries. The UWC Maastricht community includes 200 international boarding students selected by a worldwide network of about 160 national committees based on personal merit and potential, irrespective of their religion, cultural, political or financial background. The students graduate with the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

diploma, a worldwide accepted university entrance qualification. The college has often attained the highest IB average score amongst IB schools in the Netherlands, with an average of 34 points in 2012. The school was created as a centre for all the national committee students from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands to be the prime example, being around 25 percent of the whole school population. Based on the wide experience of the United World Colleges and the International School Maastricht, the UWC Maastricht will act as a Center for Expertise for Community Services (''Expertise Centrum voor Maatschappelijke Stages''). This centre will be part of the new college campus and open not only to the UWC, but also to other national schools. The Dutch ministry of education expects the college to act as an example for other Dutch schools. UWC Maastricht is part of the larger international UWC family. The President of the International Board, the governing board of the international movement, is

Queen Noor of Jordan Noor Al-Hussein ( ar, نور الحسين; born Lisa Najeeb Halaby; August 23, 1951) is an American-born Jordanian philanthropist and activist who is the fourth wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan. She was Queen of Jordan from their marriag ...

, while the honorary president of UWC was

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

. The Dutch

King Willem-Alexander Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Beatr ...

is a former UWC Student and patron of the UWC Organization of the Netherlands. He opened the school in 2013.

Campus

The new campus at Discusworp 65 in Amby consists of two school buildings and three

dormitories A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

, arranged in a green setting on an 'island' surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

and accessible via two bridges. The campus is part of Geusseltpark and is adjacent to a large swimming pool, a football stadium and other sports facilities. The campus is home to 120 residential students. In total there are around 730 students (23 pre-school students, 263 primary school students, 323 secondary school day students and 120 residential students and on every floor there is a house parent who are also teachers ) from around 90 countries. File:Maastricht, United World College1.jpg, UWCM campus in Amby File:Maastricht, United World College4.jpg, UWCM campus, bridge over the moat File:Maastricht, United World College3.jpg, UWCM campus, school building File:Maastricht, United World College5.jpg, UWCM campus, dormitories

References

External links

UWC Maastricht WebsiteUnited World Colleges
{{Coord, 50, 50, 34, N, 05, 43, 16, E, type:edu, display=title International Baccalaureate schools in the Netherlands Secondary schools in Maastricht Educational institutions established in 2009 2009 establishments in the Netherlands