UWC Robert Bosch College offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) curriculum. Given the College’s focus on sustainability, the Natural Sciences play an important role, as does the field of Mathematics. Apart from other standard courses, the College offers Arabic, World Arts and Cultures, Political Thought, the History of Asia and Oceania. Classes at RBC tend to be small, with an average of 10-12 students per course.

The Creativity and Activity sections include a wide range of often student led activities, such as baking, blogging, improvising with the A-Capella group, performing at city institutions with the RBC string ensemble, debating or international vegan cooking, ballroom or Bollywood dancing, soccer, bouldering, yoga or Taekwondo.

The College works with 26 institutions and organizations situated in the city of Freiburg, including schools, kindergartens, refugee camps, social services for the homeless, care homes and ecological institutions. Once a week, instead of class, students visit one of these projects.

Twice a year, during Project Week, students participate in projects that need to be bound to a learning outcome and can be a social service, an activity or a creativity.

Four times a year, the College suspends classes and organizes Special Focus Days for the whole community. These days include presentations, workshops and speeches around one single theme, such as Interfaith Dialogue, Democracy, Justice and Injustice or Sustainability.

Integrated in the curriculum, Global Affairs are additional sessions targeted at dealing with questions of our time – from politics to religion, economy or social studies or cultural trends - often involving known keynote speakers.

Finally, the campus functions as a community: every student is encouraged to choose an area of interest within the College and to contribute to its maintenance, including library, the garden, or the communications office. Finding ways to be helpful and doing a service to the community is just another way of social engagement.

UWC Robert Bosch College is housed in an old monastery, which was renovated and partly rebuilt by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The classrooms, the library as well as the art and fitness rooms and the labs are located in the historic building, which dates back to 1850. The top floor additionally hosts staff and teaching rooms, offices and a room of silence, where yoga and meditation sessions take place and where students can pray individually.

The Kartaus is surrounded by orchards, grassland and a historic monastery garden, which is cultivated by students and staff in an organic way. Dating back to 1340, the garden was first set up by Carthusian monks and has been restored to this date. Today, the garden is deeply rooted in RBC’s sustainability mission and approach and is considered its “green classroom“.

Behind the old monastery, a newly constructed building hosts the Mensa and the Auditorium. The Mensa is run by an NGO called “Dreisamwerke“, which operates on an inclusive basis and provides jobs to people with disabilities. Every student is expected to help with kitchen service on a rotational basis.

The student village is located opposite the Kartaus and has been built deliberately to set a contrast to the historic building. 8 student houses and 4 staff houses in the shape of cubes form the “village“. Each house offers a different perspective on the surrounding, a reflection of the diversity within: 24 students share a house, 4 one room. The three-story houses host a common room with a kitchen shared by all as well as two residential floors, each with their own bathroom. All buildings are passive houses and constructed according to Freiburg’s very high energy efficiency standards.

UWC Robert Bosch College is located in Freiburg, Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest, only 30 minutes from the border to France and Switzerland.

Students apply through their UWC national committee. Since 2014, the College also offers two additional scholarships per year to students with a refugee background. For more information about UWC Robert Bosch College, visit the  website.