Mahindra United World College of India

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The Mahindra United World College of India (MUWCI) is one of 12 United World Colleges, located 40 km west of Pune in Maharastra, India. Established in 1997, the college has a population of about 200 students from all around the world who live together on campus for two years. Alongside academic performance, international experience and community service play a central role in the school's educational concept.

Contents 1 History 2 Location 3 Campus 4 Administration 5 Educational concept 5.1 Student body 5.2 Academics 5.3 Creativity, Action, Service 6 Traditions 6.1 Orientation Week 6.2 College Meetings & Notices 6.3 Austerity meals 6.4 Project weeks 6.5 Wada concerts 6.6 International and Indian cultural education 6.7 MUWCI Fest 6.8 Holi 6.9 End of year show 6.10 Faculty lecture series 7 External links

[edit] History

On 28 November 1997, Queen Noor of Jordan inaugurated the Mahindra United World College of India as the youngest of ten United World Colleges (UWC) and the third UWC in Asia. It had been made possible largely due to substantial financial donations (approx. US$ 8m) and committed personal efforts by the Mahindra industrial family (esp. the late Harish Mahindra, deceased 1999).

[edit] Location

The college is located near the village of Paud in the Taluka Mulshi region of the western state of Maharastra, India. It is around 40 km from the city of Pune (which is in turn around 100 km south-east of Bombay), is located at approximately 18°32′29″N, 73°35′09″E. The MUWCI campus is situated in rural area on a hill overlooking the valley of the Mula river near Mulshi Dam. Rice paddies in the valleys and the steep hills of the Western Ghats form the landscape surrounding the school.

[edit] Campus

The MUWCI campus provides classrooms and modern lab and administrative facilities, students and staff are housed in 'village communities' called "wadas". There are four of these, each with its own characteristics. The design incorporates traditional elements and local building materials and won its creator, the architect Christopher Benninger, the Designer of the Year award in 1999 (more information here). In 2000, the campus also won a Business Week/Architectural Record award . Information on MUWCI's architecture is also available at archnet.org.

There was a problem with there being too many students and no enough accommodation during the academic year of 2004-2005, during which some second years elected to live in the storerooms, essentially obtaining single rooms. There has since been a new house built in one of the wadas to compensate for the extra students. However, the situation has still not been fully resolved and many students have to accommodate an extra person in their rooms.

Each Wada is unique in layout, although the houses are of the same design.

The campus also has a medical centre with 16 beds, with a doctor during the day and a full time nurse.

The campus has diverse natural life as a result of its location, and sightings of snakes and scorpions are not uncommon.

[edit] Administration

The current headmaster of the college is Dr. David Wilkinson, who has guided the college from its infancy in 1997 until the present day (as of 2006), and who was previously the headmaster of the Li Po Chun United World College from 1992-96. Dr. Cyrus Vakil is the current Director of Studies, thus in charge of the academic happenings on campus.

[edit] Educational concept

As a United World College, MUWCI has the mission to enable young people "[t]hrough international education, experience and community service", to "become responsible citizens, politically and environmentally aware, and committed to the ideals of peace and justice, understanding and cooperation, and the implementation of these ideals through action and personal example. (see UWC homepage). In practice, this translates to an educational concept which aims to create an international atmosphere through selection of students and stresses the importance of service on and off campus.

[edit] Student body

Each year, around 100 new students begin the two-year programme at MUWCI (hence a total student population of 200). Students are typically aged 16-19 come from around 75 countries, with around 35% of the student population coming from India. Selection for the college is based on merit and done through national committees of the United World Colleges (UWC) in the students' home countries. Some students even receive full or partial scholarships.

[edit] Academics

The college's academic programme is the International Baccalaureate Programme diploma programme, a two-year pre-university programme recognized for entry to universities in most countries. Curriculum details are according to the IB Diploma Programme. The language of instruction is English but courses in Hindi are offered at beginner's as well as advanced level. The current teacher:student ratio as mentioned on the school website is 1:9.

The list of courses offered by the college as of the academic year 2005-06 in the six IB subject areas are:

• Group 1 (Language A1)

1. English A1
2. Self-Taught Languages
3. Spanish A1

• Group 2 (Second Language)

1. English A2
2. Spanish A2 (in a coordinated program with A1)
3. English B
4. Spanish B
5. French B
6. Hindi B
7. Spanish Ab Initio
8. French Ab Initio
9. Hindi Ab Initio

• Group 3 (Individuals and societies)

1. Economics
2. History
3. Psychology
4. Philosophy

• Group 4 (Experimental Sciences)

1. Physics
2. Chemistry
3. Biology
4. Environmental Science

• Group 5 (Mathematics)

1. Math Higher Level
2. Math Methods
3. Math Studies
4. Further Math

• Group 6 (Arts)

1. Music
2. Film Studies
3. Art
4. Theatre(2006 Onward)

[edit] Creativity, Action, Service

In the spirit of the UWC movement, and to qualify for the IB diploma, the CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) programme requires students to participate, on a weekly basis, in at least one of each of the following:

• Action(A)

Includes sports activities on campus like soccer, cricket, self-defence, basketball, rugby, tennis, table tennis, ballet and hiking.

• Creation(C)

In past years, activities from this section have included activities as varied as cinema club, D&D, choir, Classical Indian dance, chess, Guitar,Latin Rhythms,Drums, Sex and Gender discussion, Yoga, Zen meditation and Indian cooking.

• Campus Service(CS)

Students are in charge of a range of services such as the college newspapers (MUWCI Libertarian and FTB),library and technology services, and the school's own fire fighting crew.

• Community Interaction(CI)

MUWCI students help in orphanages and homes for old or disabled people both in Pune and villages closer to the campus, provide literacy classes for children and local workers, and help building local schools. Examples include Sadhana, a home for special adults and Active English, where local children are brought up to campus for English classes. Some also include a third year option, where students take a gap year to devote more time to a particular organisation. In the past, students from other UWCs have come to spend a gap year at Mahindra.

In total, there are over 60 activities to choose from in MUWCI, all led by students.

[edit] Traditions

[edit] Orientation Week

It is the first one week of joining MUWCI planned by the second years for the new first years. The main aim of this week is for the first years to get together with the new environment and to interact with the others. Within this week there are several pragrammes for the first years to get a grip of MUWCI realm, and to understand what's the student life in MUWCI is really like.

[edit] College Meetings & Notices

The entire college convenes on the library lawn overlooking th Mulshi valley every Monday for important college wide announcements and discussions. On alternate weeks, only notices from students and the faculty are announced.

[edit] Austerity meals

These are simple dinners provided in the cafeteria on Friday nights, where only one to two types of food are served. This is done to raise money for charity by reducing the actual cost of the meal.

[edit] Project weeks

There are two designated weeks every academic year when the school empties, and the students encouraged to explore India. These are called project weeks. Incoming students are generally placed into project week groups for the first project week, but are then responsible for organising and planning out their trips for the remaining three. The first project week for a MUWCI student will include a faculty member, but there is no faculty supervision required for the remaining trips although teachers often accompany students on trips.

[edit] Wada concerts

Wada concerts are open-mic nights held in the residential area, where students perform various pieces in an open informal atmosphere. There is no fixed schedule, and concerts generally happen whenever the students feel like having one.

[edit] International and Indian cultural education

The regular celebration of "national evenings" on campus, where students from one region or continent present their culture to the college community - usually through food, dance, plays and music - is meant to emphasise the strongly international atmosphere on campus. At the same time, classes in Indian Culture and celebrations of Indian holidays emphasise the influence of the host country.

[edit] MUWCI Fest

An annual rock concert organized by the student body and the Child Education Fund. All the profit goes to the CEF as a charity. For the last two shows, the concert took place at the Helipad.

[edit] Holi

On the day of the Holi - a Indian festival of colour - the students and facultry member celebrates Holi by putting colour powder and colour water to each other throughout the campus. For the recent years the students are asked by the Administrative Office to use only natural colour powders due to impact on the natural environment. Most of the case the students ends up having a massive mud fight near the basket ball field.

[edit] End of year show

The end of year show is a show hosted by the first years for the second years at the end of final examinations. This is an informal event and generally occurs the night before actual graduation.

[edit] Faculty lecture series

A weekly lecture series by a faculty member on his/her areas of expertise. Past topics include archeology in India, quantum physics, and on the chaos theory.

[edit] External links

Official

• The Mahindra United World College of India - Official school homepage
• United World Colleges - Official homepage of the UWC organisation

Architecture:

• njit.edu - about the architect and the project
• archnet.org - with plans and images

Photo galleries

• BusinessWeek.com - pictures from BusinessWeek award
• uwc.de - pictures hosted by German UWC National Committee

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