Student Village

More than 200 students from over 85 countries live together in the recently modernized Student Village. There are five student residences, each with a dedicated House Leader and 4 Advisors who support the students on a day-to-day basis.

The Houses are each named for a Nordic Country: Norway House, Sweden House, Denmark House, Iceland House and Finland House. Each House has its own personality, and there is a real sense of House identity and House pride.

Students live in a room shared with 4 other students, and there is a deliberate diversity of nationalities and backgrounds in each room. A student from Norway might share a room with students from Venezuela, China, Tanzania and Ghana for example. A room shared between 5 people may be a new experience for many students, but each bed space has a curtain for privacy and individual study space. Houses also have shared public space called a Day Room, with sofas, tables, chairs, and simple cooking appliances for anyone to use.

Students are responsible for their own daily life, which includes looking after themselves, their room and their House. At the core of the UWC Red Cross Nordic programme is a need for students to be conscious about their personal well-being on the one hand, and the well-being of the community on the other. For many, this level of autonomy and responsibility can be a very new, and sometimes challenging, experience but their House Leaders and Advisors, Peer Listeners and Student Council, Second Year Mentors and Classroom Teachers, Care Centre Staff and School Leadership are always ready to support them.

A student voice

Classes here can be very demanding. But what separates UWC the most from other school systems is not the amount of homework or the pace of the class, but being in a school with people completely different from oneself. Talking to other students about their culture is very different from simply reading about it in a book at school at home. That is to me what makes UWC something special.