Atlantic College - The College

The College

The College's stated mission is to enable students "to become positive agents of change through action and life choice, fulfilling individual potential and recognizing individual responsibilities as global citizens".

Students from over 75 countries participate in Atlantic College's rigorous two-year programme in which they combine academic studies with activities and service. Admission, and scholarship awards, are decided by national UWC committees around the world, which also send students to the other United World Colleges.

At the beginning of the two years, students are obliged to select a service that they will carry out for at least four hours a week for the duration of their time at the college, with the choices including manning and running the RNLI lifeboat station at the college, working on the college’s own organic farm, providing music therapy for dementia patients or running activity sessions with disabled children. Students can choose from ten services offered: Arts Centre Service, Cardiff and Vale Rescue Association (CAVRA) Service, Estates Service, Extramural Centre Service, Inshore Lifeboat Service, Lifeguard Service, Marine Environment Monitoring Service (MEMS), Media and Communications Service, Performing Arts Service, and Social Service. At the beginning of each term, students also select three activities, which must each be carried out for at least two hours a week.

The College is unique in having an active RNLI Lifeboat Station within its grounds, and its Atlantic 75 class boat is manned by staff and students from the College. Much of the development of the Atlantic 21, 75 and 85 classes of lifeboat took place here. ILB training vessels are still built on-site by students and are in regular use in practice and training of the RNLI crews at the station.

What was to become the world’s most widely-used craft for inshore rescue, the rigid inflatable boat (RIB), was conceived, designed, and built at Atlantic College under its founding headmaster, retired Rear-Admiral Desmond Hoare. The B Class Atlantic Inshore Lifeboat was named by the RNLI after its birthplace, the College. It has often been claimed that, had the College earned royalties on every rigid-hulled inflatable boat now in service, its scholarship fund would have never looked back. But Desmond Hoare, who finally patented the design in 1973, handed over all rights to the RNLI for the nominal fee of one pound. He did not cash the cheque.

David Sutcliffe, a member of the founding staff of the Atlantic College in 1962, published The RIB The Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Lifeboat and its Place of Birth The Atlantic College in 2010, a book that tells the story of the inception of the RIB (rigid inflatable boat).