Princess Ariane to Attend the United World College of the Adriatic
The Dutch Royal Family has announced that this autumn Princess Ariane, 16, the youngest daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, will attend the United World College of the Adriatic, in Duino, where she will take her International Baccalaureate. The school fee for the two-year period is around 40,000 pounds and the subjects include Serbian Language, Arts and Cultures of the World and Environmental Systems. Founded in 1982, the school offers students an “open campus” experience that involves them staying in residences scattered around the picturesque village. “This way they have the opportunity to mingle with the locals, and the fact that everyone studies Italian facilitates this,” the school explains on its website. “In our diverse community, cultural exchange takes place in many ways. The heterogeneity of the student body itself is such that even the informal interactions of everyday life with classmates and teachers constitute excellent learning opportunities.”
Activities and Other Students
There are also activities: students make the most of the natural landscape by doing rock climbing, sailing and kayaking. The United World College of the Atlantic, in Wales Princess Ariane of the Netherlands is the latest in a long line of royals to attend a United World College school: both her father, King Willem-Alexander, and her sister, Princess Alexia, have attended the United World College of the Atlantic (the Welsh counterpart of the United World College of the Adriatic) near Cardiff. Princess Alexia graduated last weekend along with Princess Leonor, the eldest daughter of Queen Letizia and King Felipe of Spain. Leonor’s younger sister, Princess Sofia of Spain, is expected to enroll at the United World College of the Atlantic at the end of 2023 to complete her International Baccalaureate degree, while Princess Elisabeth, heir to the Belgian throne, graduated from the same school in 2020. Among the former students who attended the 12th-century medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan county district is also Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein of Jordan. In 2020, The Times described the United World College of the Atlantic as a “Hogwarts for hippies”, describing it as an “unconventional college” that “prefers educators and vegans to directors and rulers”.
Founder of the United World Colleges
The 18 existing United World Colleges were founded by German pedagogue Kurt Hahn, who also opened Gordonstoun School, where the late Duke of Edinburgh and King Charles III studied.
