Applying to the Global Leadership Experience (GLE)

Applications include short written and video responses exploring applicants’ motivation and understanding of leadership. GLE applicants may be interviewed before acceptance.

Booking Deadline

Application deadline is at 23:59 BST Tuesday 31st March 2026. Late applications will not be considered.

Applications are reviewed together after the closing date and all applicants will be notified if their application is successful by Monday 27th April 2026.

An invoice will be sent out at the time of confirmation, and you must be able to pay the invoice at this stage. Please contact us if you require a payment plan.

How to Apply

Complete the application form before the deadline. To stay up to date with courses available at UWC Atlantic, Wales, UK, sign up to our mailing list.

The 2026 programme builds on more than six decades of UWC leadership experiences to create a bold, cohesive, unforgettable programme. The course centres on:

• How global systems shape our lives and how we can shape them
• Leadership as a skillful practice and a life-long shared journey
• Critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and courageous action
• Intercultural learning and real-world application
• Connection to place through the landscape, ecosystems, and living history and culture of Wales

GLE immerses participants in the real stories, forces, and systems that shape the world—helping them move from overwhelm to agency, and from critique to reconstruction.

Participants will leave with a new sense of belonging to a global community of young change-makers.

A Journey into Emergent Global Leadership

GLE is an opportunity for emerging leaders ready to critically explore global systems and practise leadership in action.

GLE builds capacities for:

• Systems thinking: mapping, questioning and understanding global systems
• Regenerative leadership: sustaining oneself, others and the environment while tackling complex challenges; moving from critique to creation
• Plural leadership models: exploring diverse cultural, political, and real life examples of different forms of leadership
• Interconnectedness & planetary futures: global environmental systems, Wales as a living landscape, and understanding our role in an increasingly interconnected world
• Ethics & power: who shapes global narratives, who benefits, who is excluded and why
• Seed & soil: going home with seeds of projects, practices and visions to put into action at home; and the right supports to continue the learning journey

Participants are encouraged to question assumptions about leadership, explore alternative narratives, and practise “leaderfulness”—stepping forward and stepping back as situations require.

GLE is an accredited UWC Short Course and a tangible stepping stone on the pathway toward deeper UWC engagement.

By joining this programme you are joining the UWC movement and finding a home within it that you can take with you wherever you go.

Exploring Global Systems

Through immersive activities and real-world case studies with a hand-picked, diverse cohort of international youth, participants will experience:

• How global systems shape local realities
• What defines global narratives—and the power of media literacy
• Planetary boundaries and socio-ecological interconnectedness
• Complex challenges such as climate, inequality, migration, and technology
• How to rebuild systems that benefit all, not just critique the ones that cause harm

Participants learn to engage with global issues beyond surface-level “internationalism”, stereotypes, or social media fragments—building genuine understanding, nuance, agency and lasting friendships.

GLE is delivered by a team of professional Visiting Faculty—experienced educators, systems thinkers, and practitioners who provide mentorship, academic challenge, and career guidance.

GLE participants explore:

• Emergent leadership styles and diverse cultural models of leadership: such as regenerative and kin-centric leadership
• Leading collaboratively in diverse groups
• Navigating complexity, ambiguity, and moral dilemmas
• Community-centred leadership driven by real needs and responsibility

Sessions draw on outdoor education, theatre, storytelling, systems tools, and reflective practice. Participants learn not only what leadership is, but how it feels and what it asks of them.

GLE is a living expression of UWC Atlantic’s origins and the wider movement’s mission. Participants step into this legacy as they:

• Learn UWC movement history—including its roots at UWC Atlantic College
• Explore peace, sustainability, and justice in today’s world
• Practise values as embodied, lived actions that are more than ideals
• Reflect on what it means to return home as a leader in their own community
• Experience frameworks for global solidarity and regeneration
• Join a global network of young people committed to building a better future

GLE ignites idealism through authentic connection and learning that engages participants’ hands, hearts and heads.

The UWC Atlantic campus is surrounded by a landscape rich in ecology, history, culture, and community.

GLE Participants will dive into:

• Coastal ecosystems and marine life
• Woodlands, valleys, and changing rural environments
• Welsh cultural heritage, resilience, and social transformation
• Local community partners and initiatives
• Stories, myths, and lived experiences of Wales as a complex system and rich culture
• Cynefin as a complexity framework, but also the Welsh concept of belonging – across human difference and within our natural habitat

The land, sea and cultural surroundings become an integral teacher, reinforcing themes of place-based leadership and responsibility.

Outdoor learning is a core part of the 2026 programme, designed to build courage, trust, teamwork, and self-awareness. Activities may include:

• Compelling team and solo challenges in nature
• Rugged wilderness experiences through the coasts, mountains, and woodlands of Wales
• Expeditionary leadership experiences putting theories into practice in the unique landscape surrounding UWC Atlantic

These outdoor learning and adventure sessions safely bring participants out of their comfort zones and into their “growth zones”, creating transformational experiences and lifelong memories that will shape the way they face challenges in their lives to come.

Participants will be accommodated in houses featuring dormitories, where up to four students share a room.

Houses are assigned by gender, with room allocations based on age and a thoughtfully balanced mix of nationalities. Each house includes a common room with ample space to relax, as well as a kitchen stocked with daily essentials like fresh fruit, bread, spreads, biscuits, and cereals.

All houses are situated within the College grounds, offering stunning views of the sea and surrounding woodland, and are just a short walk from all key facilities, including the dining hall, classrooms, activity areas, and pick-up points.

Dining in the historic 12th-century St Donat’s Castle hall, a space that has hosted thinkers and leaders for decades, participants will enjoy three full meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On days the group will be offsite, a packed lunch will be provided.