The international Baccalaureate: international education and cultural preservation

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is an internationally accepted pre-university qualification which, since its origins in the 1960s, has increased in popularity to the point where it is now offered in more than 70 countries worldwide. As a university entrance qualification accepted internationally, it aims not only to provide an appropriate academic curriculum, but also to support geographic and cultural mobility and to promote international understanding. It claims to do so by both inculcating international attitudes in its students and by encouraging the maintenance and development of their cultural identities. This study examines the extent to which the IB actually appears to achieve these aims, by exploring the views of an opportunity sample of ex-IB students, IB teachers and staff at the University of Bath who have direct experience of the IB programme. The findings indicate that the IB can clearly facilitate mobility and can contribute to the development of international understanding, whilst at the same time supporting the preservation of individual cultures and national identities, provided contextual factors are appropriately arranged.