Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., S.T.D., Chancellor of Universities of Western Civilization and the Liberal Studies Program
The Universities of Western Civilization is a network of cooperating colleges that have agreed to accept some or all of your pre-college studies completed while homeschooling or in high school (or later). At present LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM (LSP) students begin the program by enrolling in the Angelicum Great Books Program, then conclude their college studies towards degrees at one of the UOWC participating colleges and universities. We are also developing additional courses for home and high schoolers for college-level credit, to be announced in due course. Meet Our Chancellor
Enjoy your visit to our growing international UOWC network of Catholic (and non-Catholic cooperating) colleges dedicated to encouraging early college-level studies preserving the best in Western civilization, at costs your family and you can afford. After completing whatever semesters of the Angelicum Great Books Program you wish, complete the LSP and your degree at one of the UOWC colleges detailed on this website.
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In our day doors to authentic education have almost all been closed or truncated by the pressures of political correctness [i] and the looming “dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize any thing as certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” [ii] The possibility of discovering truth, indeed the very existence of any absolute truth is widely denied. This state of affairs opens the door to those who “with cunning try to draw into error…those tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human deceit.” [iii]
The purpose of this website is to open a new door, via the internet and distance learning, to reveal anew the treasures of reason and truth, Divine revelation and faith, and the beauty of the sublime heritage of Western culture in art, architecture, literature, verse and music.
Through a growing collaboration of educational institutions committed to preserving all that is best in Western civilization, an international educational network has formed in order to offer distance education courses worldwide, from kindergarten through university, with important physical, on-campus components at collaborating institutions.
The Universities of Western Civilization website is something like a university in the conventional sense of being a place students go to be in contact with teachers and other students in a learning environment; a place where the truth is sought as a good in itself. Universities traditionally offer one or more bachelor’s degree programs as well as graduate programs offering master’s or doctoral degrees. The Universities of Western Civilization network offers students all of the above, in cooperation, collectively.
However, Universities of Western Civilization (uowc.org) is not a single conventional university in the sense of being several colleges collected together on one campus, nor in being one institution run by one administration. UOWC is a website linking completely independent colleges, universities and educational programs that mutually recognize and accept some or all of the educational work of students at the other participating institutions, which collaborate in order to enable students to find and navigate through related and coordinated educational courses, leading to bachelor’s and graduate degrees.
Rather than tearing down or destroying the heritage of Western civilization, as is happening in many educational institutions under the monikers of “deconstructionism, radical liberalism, postmodernism, relativism” and the like, the collaborating institutions are committed to preserving and transmitting all that is best of Western culture – to being part of a renaissance of Western civilization. The list of collaborating educational institutions may be viewed at Member Institutions.
l a phrase describing communist orthodoxy, drawn from Mao’s Little Red Book
ll homily of His Eminence Card. Joseph Ratzinger, (now Pope Benedict XVI), Vatican Basilica, 18 April 2005
lll Ephesians 4, 14
Fr. Gareth Jones
We are pleased to announce that Saint Bede’s Hall, Oxford is the latest college to join the rapidly growing UOWC network of cooperating colleges. Rev. Gareth Jones, Fellow and Chairman of St Bede’s Board of Management has been accepted to the UOWC Board of Governors. St. Bede’s Hall has as one of its principle aims to make the “Oxford experience” available to American Catholic students, for one to three semesters (terms), or longer. Angelicum Great Books students may enter St, Bede’s directly after successful completion of the four-year Great Books Program, which they may begin as early as 9th grade. For more information, please call Steve Bertucci at 360-496-0007. He will be happy to answer your questions.
Oxford, UK
Below: Church for Saint Bede’s Hall in Oxford
St Bede’s Hall is delighted to be able to offer a number of bursaries (scholarships) for twelve-week courses starting in September 2010. These will amount to 50% of the fees, effectively reducing the cost for tuition, excursions and the social programme from $14,000 to $7000, and will apply in all subjects. Bursaries will be awarded on a case by case basis until the limit has been reached. Applicants wishing to apply should download and submit a completed application form as soon as possible. Once a bursary has been granted a non-refundable deposit of $300 must be paid before the 31st March 2010 to secure the place. A number of smaller bursaries amounting to 10% of the total cost are also available for short Summer courses. For a two-week course the bursary will amount to $220, reducing the cost to $1,980; for the four-week course the fees will be reduced by $400 to $3,600.
Students wishing to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to study in Oxford at a very reduced cost are advised to apply
