How is the IBDP regarded?

The IB Diploma Programme was recently marked 10/10 in a review of pre-university qualifications, by the Financial Times (May 10, 2008): “Top IB scores worth the equivalent of six A grades at A level and one A at AS. Not ideal for the pupil who has always wanted to drop maths, the IB does put you significantly ahead in the global race for the best universities."

The philosopher AC Grayling, writing in The Guardian, said: In the range of contemporary styles of school education on offer in the UK by far the best is the International Baccalaureate. One of its compulsory elements is theory of knowledge, a course aimed at getting students to reflect critically on diverse ways of knowing and on areas of knowledge, and to consider the role and nature of knowledge in our own culture & in other cultures. I'm quoting here from the IB Organisation document on core curriculum requirements. And it also aims to make students aware of themselves as thinkers, and to prompt them to understand the complexity of knowledge and to use it responsibly. These are excellent aims: this course should be compulsory in all schools everywhere. One outcome might be a better world."

Click here to read an article about how Universities view the Diploma.