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Systems Transformation Pathway

The Systems Transformation Pathway: Leadership for Just Futures prepares students to grapple with some of the most complex global challenges confronting us: how to feed 8 billion people on a warming planet, how to restore and protect the biodiversity of ecosystems, how to transition away from polluting energy sources quickly and equitably, how to respond to mass displacements and migrations as a result of conflict, climate change and disasters.

We have reimagined what an education that prepares UWC graduates for a future on a climate-changed planet looks like, which we launched in August 2023.

Olli-Pekka Heinonen, IB Director General

Graduates of this new IB Diploma Pathway will leave UWC Atlantic uniquely empowered. They'll learn how to organise at scale and address systemic challenges, balancing the 'why' of systems thinking and the 'now what' of transformative change, inspired to secure a just future for our people and the planet. This collaboration between the IB and UWC Atlantic is vital in paving the way for the future of the IB Diploma Programme more generally

Olli-Pekka Heinonen, IB Director General

We have recruited a pioneering cohort of students to take part in the most ambitious educational endeavour at the college since it opened its doors 60 years ago. Together, and in partnership with the International Baccalaureate, we can once again transform international education.

The Systems Transformation Pathway is fundamentally action-oriented, it replaces written exams and classroom-based learning with relevant, ambitious, necessary work in complex and authentic real-world contexts.

systems transformation pathway - food, biodiversity, energy, migration

This course equips students to go beyond treating symptoms to advance transformative change at a systems level. To be effective at this, students will benefit from understanding and apprenticing themselves to systems in a specific impact area - food, biodiversity, energy, or migration.

Within these areas students will practise taking good action alongside peers from an incredibly diverse UWC cohort, experts and leaders amongst our influential alumni community and partner organisations, and communities leading change on the ground.

Our ground-breaking partnership with the International Baccalaureate allows our pioneers to take this course in place of two Standard Level subjects and graduate with a full IB Diploma and all the benefits of a globally recognised credential.

IBDP infographic
Faith Abiodun, UWC International Executive Director

Our reputation as educational pioneers who inspire changemakers precedes us. So it's only natural that UWC should be proactively seeking to solve the issues that face us right now and in the future

Faith Abiodun, UWC International Executive Director

Find out more about the Systems Transformation Pathway below