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Adriatic College history

Two decades of devoted effort which have made
of the College an institution open to the outside world, receptive to changes in Italy and abroad, created laboriously day by day by the Founding Headmaster David Sutcliffe, together the Founder President Corrado Belci.

Let us know take a step backwards, to the time when the College was no more than a dream in the minds of certain personalities who have followed and nurtured its development.
It was in 1971 that Gianfranco Facco Bonetti, then the First Secretary in the Italian Embassy
in London, visited the Atlantic College in South Wales.
It was inspiration at first sight.
The ideals and the atmosphere which embraced the alma mater of all the United World Colleges must also be brought to Italy, and to a region in which they would have an immense impact: Friuli Venezia Giulia, a land of frontiers and of exchanges with Eastern Europe, and the site of one of the most divisive borders of the old continent.

The young diplomat sent an enthusiastic report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. A copy also reached the hands of the then Secretary of State for Trade, the Trieste Hon. Corrado Belci.
Thus was laid, metaphorically, the first building block of the United World College of the Adriatic, and at an opportune moment. For at that time the President of the International Council of the United World Colleges, Lord Mountbatten, was seeking an opening for the organisation on the continent of Europe.

Successive contacts between Mountbatten, the Nobel Foundation and the Prince Raimondo della Torre e Tasso of Duino led to the holding of a conference in 1974 in the Castle of Duino, at which were laid the plans for the creation
of the College, to become the first outside the Anglo-Saxon, English speaking world.
The earthquake of 1976 in Friuli, which cost the lives of 1,000 and made 70,000 homeless, appeared to mean the end of the project. Not so. The "Earthquake Law" (DPR 6 March 1987 n. 102) created a legal identity for the College.

Our origins

After the creation of a legal identity, later the Regional authorities provided a temporary home - the "Europa Hotel" - where the first students came in September 1982 to spend their first academic year.
In August 1983 the College transferred to Duino, its present home, and was formally inaugurated the following year by HRH the Prince of Wales, President of the International Council of the United World Colleges from 1978 to 1992.

Our philosophy

The United World Colleges offer students of all races and creeds the opportunity of developing international understanding through programmes which combine high quality academic study and activities which encourage
a sense of adventure and social responsibility.
The course covers the final two years of secondary education before university entry.
There are some 115 UWC National and Selection Committees around the world.
The National Committees, which work closely with Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs, are responsible for generating scholarship funds and for the selection of students.

Entry Policies

All students attend the College on full scholarship. This scholarship programme makes possible the selection of students without regard to social or financial background, race, politics or religion.
Scholarships are provided by the Italian Government, by Italian Regions and the Italian UWC National Committee, and by a number of UWC Committees in other countries.
A suitable applicant is a lively pupil who is doing well academically and who has a good range of interests. Important attributes include the ability to mix with others and to be tolerant of fundamentally different opinions and attitudes. Experience has shown that successful students are those who come with a clear awareness of our aims and a strong personal commitment to contribute to them. The College seeks students who are socially mature and morally responsible.

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