Founded: 2006 Student Profile: 180 students aged 16-18
Location: Mostar, Bosnia and Herzogovinia

Based in the recently-restored Mostar Gymnasium, UWC in Mostar is a part of the innovative UWC-IBO Initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina which aims to contribute to the post-conflict reconstruction of education in the region.

In an exemplary demonstration of Kurt Hahn's vision of what UWC can achieve, the UWC in Mostar offers a new and positive model to actively counteract a decade of ethnically segregated education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where schools teach three different national curricula (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian). UWC Mostar is the first UWC with the explicit aim of contributing to the reconstruction of a post-conflict society from within.

It is also the first UWC to be housed within an existing national school. The Mostar Gymnasium teaches two curricula separately for Croat and Bosniak students, as is the case in many so called ‘two schools under one roof’ which is a post-war phenomenon in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But on the Gymnasium’s top floor, UWC Mostar offers a single curriculum for all its students – drawn from all national groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as from overseas – who all live, study and work together. UWC Mostar students live in three residences in different parts of the city, with students of different nationalities sharing rooms to gain the greatest possible exposure to other cultures and ideas. Teachers from across Bosnia and Herzegovina are also exposed to the UWC philosophy through the UWC-IB Initiative’s support for the professional development of teachers in local schools.