Princess of Wales? HRH Leonor wins sixth-form place in Vale of Glamorgan

HEIR to the throne Princess Leonor has made it through the rigorous selection process to get into an élite Welsh sixth-form college based in a 12th-century castle.

The young Royal, 15 – whose father is King Felipe VI of Spain – had to get through a tough pre-selection process for the United World College of the Atlantic (UWC Atlantic), which is always carried out anonymously, meaning none of the board or staff viewing it has any idea who the candidate is.

This way, there can be no danger of 'ordinary' civilians being screened out and prevented from studying in what is described as an institute providing a 'liberal, progressive and radical education', with a 'global ethos' and 'strong focus on local and global sustainability'.

Once Leonor cleared the first hurdle, she had to sit a series of tests, given online.

Founded in 1962, the UWC Atlantic College is based in St Donat's Castle in Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, a short distance from Barry and close to Cardiff and the Bristol Channel.

It is set within rolling, emerald fields and woodland, with its own valley and seafront promenade, a spacious garden with café tables, and dining halls that would not look out of place at Harry Potter's famous wizarding school, Hogwart's. 

Although élite in terms of its limited places – 350 at a time – and the exceptional level of education provided, it is not 'exclusive' in terms of only being available to the world's richest families: Most would-be pupils are selected through UWC National Committees, which offer scholarships covering all or part of the fees.

In fact, around six in 10 students at the UWC Atlantic are on scholarships.

Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma – uncle of the UK's Prince Philip, who turns 100 this year – was president of the UWC from five years after it was founded by Germany's Kurt Hahn, an education specialist who had set up schools in Scotland and in his home country to promote 'new and peaceful learning solutions' at a time when, less than 20 years after the end of World War II, social divide was rife.

Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, was granted the presidency by his great-uncle in 1978, but it has also been chaired by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, by South African president Nelson Mandela during his lifetime, and Queen Noor of Jordan, the US-born widow of King Hussein and whose daughter, Princess Raiyah bint Al-Hussein, now 35, is one of the college's famous alumni.

Other Royals who have been among the 90 or so nationalities – very few of them, in fact, British – to have studied at UWC Atlantic are Crown Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, Duchess of Brabant, who will be 20 this year, and King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands, 54.

The college is for students aged 16 to 19, who study the International Baccalaureate – a global A-level type syllabus eligible for entry into any university in the world.

In any year, anything up to half the students have been granted unconditional offers of places at US Ivy-League universities and at Oxbridge, and all those who successfully achieve their International Baccalaureate (IB) from UWC Atlantic are entitled to apply to the Davis United World College Scholars Programme, which offers scholarships of up to 100% of the fees and living costs for would-be students at a number of US-based universities where they and their families are unable to cover these themselves.

UWC Atlantic focuses heavily on its students' contributions to the community, and encourages them to return to their place of origin after they finish their education to help promote social and economic development where they come from, mindful of not wanting to 'steal' the best brains and talents from other nations, particularly as some of its students are from third-world countries on full scholarships and would be an asset to their home nations once they have completed their studies.

Due to the schooling system in Spain, even though Princess Leonor will not turn 16 until October 31, it is believed she will be starting sixth-form in Wales from the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year.