UWC Changshu China is pleased to announce that Pelham Lindfield Roberts will become the college’s second Principal following Robert Clarence’s retirement in August 2018.

We will be delighted to welcome Pelham to the community. He and his wife Ulrike are well-known to members of the UWC movement from Pelham’s time as Head of Mahindra UWC of India and, earlier in his career, as a teacher of Peace and Conflict Studies and History, a House Parent and Head of the Lifeboat Service at UWC Atlantic College.

Pelham’s achievements during five years at Mahindra College have been considerable. He has focused on curriculum development, including the concept of an educational ‘core’ and innovative courses in Systems Thinking and People, Nations and Cultures, which seeks to bring together more deliberately the IB Diploma and UWC’s mission; work to build a more harmonious and healthy college community that is conscious of its position and its responsibilities within India; and support for the remarkable Akshara programme, which has created a partnership between the college and its local communities and brought about significant and lasting change.

Between his UWC positions, Pelham held Headships at Salem International College in Germany (part of Schule Schloss Salem, the first school founded by Kurt Hahn) and at international schools in the USA and South Africa. He also spent a period as a volunteer at Waterford Kamhlaba UWC of Southern Africa while undertaking academic research.

Pelham and Ulrike have three sons, all of whom have passed through different UWC colleges; their youngest son spent one year on the Pre-IB programme at UWC Changshu and is now at Red Cross Nordic UWC. This is a family that is grounded in UWC’s mission and values and Ulrike will also take on teaching and other responsibilities in the college.

We are confident that Pelham’s experience makes him an ideal choice to join UWC Changshu China. We have achieved much in our first two years, but, as with any college at this point in its history, there remains much to do. Pelham will work with the board and his faculty and staff colleagues to add further rigour and innovation to our educational delivery, ensure that we become an effective, cohesive and committed UWC community, and strengthen our systems and processes and the ways we organise ourselves.

Pelham said: “I am excited to be joining UWC Changshu. There is a massive opportunity for the college to define what it means to be a UWC college in China. It has been a difficult decision for me to leave Mahindra College, where I have enjoyed an exhilarating and highly rewarding time as Head, and it was only the anticipation of what we will be able to achieve together in Changshu that persuaded me to consider a change. I am looking forward to joining Mark Wang and the board, all the faculty and staff – and the students of course – to play my part in stewarding the college through the next phase of its development.”

Mark Jiapeng Wang, founder and Chairman of the Board of UWC Changshu China said:” We selected Pelham as our next principal after a wide-ranging search. We attracted a strong field of applicants, including several with UWC experience and others who had strong experience in China or other very relevant strengths. However, Pelham emerged as our strongest candidate. We have had several opportunities to interact with him and to discuss his ideas for the college, and I am also pleased that we have been able to seek advice from colleagues who know him and his work. I am grateful to the agency that supported us in the search, RSAcademics, for bringing together a good, diverse field.

I hope you will all join with me in welcoming Pelham’s appointment. Now we must turn our attention back to all that remains to be achieved in the current school year. I am grateful to all the college community for their support and patience while the search process has been under way. ”