SUBJECT CHOICES 2023-2025
Learning through Academics UWC Atlantic, like all the United World Colleges, offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). The IB Diploma is a deliberate synthesis of the specialisation required in some national systems and the breadth provided in others. In 2023-2024, UWC Atlantic will become the only school in the world to offer a new pathway within the IBDP: the Systems Transformation Pathway. The Systems Transformation Pathway supports our ambition that a UWC Atlantic education develops “bridge builders and compassionate leaders, empowering them to go beyond treating symptoms to understand root causes and initiate transformative solutions to human and environmental crises.” This pioneering and distinctive new IBDP pathway has been developed out of a partnership between UWC Atlantic and the International Baccalaureate. Both pathways lead to students receiving the full IB Diploma, subject to meeting the graduation requirements.
Two Academic Pathways in the IB Diploma
CURRENT IB DIPLOMA PROGRAMME
SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION PATHWAY
Students completing the full IB Diploma Programme are required to study six subjects across different academic areas.
Taking the place of two Standard Level subjects in the IBDP is a bespoke course specially designed at UWC Atlantic to equip graduates to take on some of the greatest global challenges on a climate-changed planet: transforming the food system; advancing a just energy transition; reversing biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems; and responding to migration and displacement at an unprecedented scale.
The six academic areas are: Group 1: Studies in Language and Literature Group 2: Language Acquisition Group 3: Individuals and Societies Group 4: Experimental Sciences Group 5: Mathematics Group 6: The Arts Students must choose one subject from Groups 1-5. They must then select either one subject from Group 6 or choose a second subject from Groups 1 to 5. Students must choose three subjects at Higher Level and three subjects at Standard Level. Note: Environmental Systems and Societies is an interdisciplinary course that can be chosen as a Group 3 or a Group 4 subject. Find out more about the IB Diploma at www.ibo.org
Students pursuing the Systems Transformation Pathway must choose three IBDP subjects at Higher Level and one subject at Standard Level. The Systems Transformation Pathway course is worth two Standard Level subjects. To ensure breadth in their studies, students are required to take at least one subject from Groups 1 and 2 and at least one subject from Groups 4 and 5. Students can take up to two courses from each academic area (Groups 1-6), but no more than two subjects combined from Groups 1 and 2. Beyond this there are no restrictions on their subject choices. Find out more about the new Systems Transformation Pathway at https://www.atlanticcollege.org/transformingeducation
