Northern Ireland has a long tradition of sending students to United World Colleges, with a growing alumni base across the world.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Northern Irish students regularly took up places at UWC Atlantic College, Wales, and UWC Pearson College, Canada.

The National Committee was re-founded in 2017 after a prolonged hiatus. It is our key goal to ensure that Northern Irish young people are offered the chance to attend UWC, and to represent Northern Ireland during their time there.

In 2018, we selected three students - a bumper year for Northern Ireland! - who will end their UWC adventure in May/June 2020 at UWC Atlantic College in Wales, UWC Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and UWC Mahindra in India. In August 2019, a further four students started their UWC adventure, including one at UWC-ISAK Japan, one of the newest UWCs. We had students enter UWC Robert Bosch in Germany and another UWC-USA, for the first time. The forth student for 2019 joined UWC Mostar.

In 2020, we were able to offer places in UWC Atlantic, UWC Robert Bosch, UWC Thailand (another first for us), and UWC USA.

We believe that the unique history, political status, and social make-up of Northern Ireland makes the UWC experience especially pertinent to our young people. After all, UWC makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.