Auckland International College
| Auckland International College | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
 | |
85 Airedale Street, Auckland | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private: Fully Reg. Co-Ed Secondary (Year 11-13) with Boarding Facilities (AIC Tower), accredited IB World School. |
| Motto | - |
| Established | July 2003 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 473 |
| Principal | Craig Monaghan |
| School roll | 88 |
| Socio-economic decile | n/a |
| Website | www.aic.ac.nz |
The Auckland International College (often abbreviated AIC) is a private coeducational secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. The school is instituted under the Japanese corporation Oshu, and is part of a bigger institution Academy for the International Community (also abbreviated AIC). It teaches the IB Diploma Programme. It also offers Pre-IB studies to allow students to prepare for the IB curriculum. Students in the Pre-IB programme can cycle through all of the school's subject offerings. Activities, sports and a research project of 2000 words form part of the Pre-IB programme.
AIC has a sister school, the AICJ Oshu Gakuen in Hiroshima, Japan, also set up by the Oshu Corporation in April 2006.
History
- July 2003: AIC is established by the funding of the Oshu Corporation.
- June 2005: Craig Monaghan takes over as Principle of AIC.
- May 2006: The inaugural Class of 2006 graduate from AIC.
Achievements
Despite having only produced the first batch of graduates since its establishment, AIC has enjoyed a considerable success with some of its graduates achieving successful application to a number of high-profile universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Princeton University, the Cornell University, the University of Chicago, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Cambridge and the London University, to name a few. [1]
Controversy
AIC's regulations imposed on and off the campus have often been the subject of discontent by a section of the school's students and staff, who consider the regulations to be overly restrictive. According to a former student of AIC, on the condition that his/her name should be undisclosed, has said that no less than three of the original Class of 2006 studets did not complete their IB courses at AIC, and decided to pursue their studies elsewhere. This may be regarded as a considerably high proportion as the Class of 2006 contained a total of 51 students at the time of their graduation in May 2006. According to the student, some of the early leavers cited the "strict rules" and the "unsociable nature" of AIC and its students as their reason to quit AIC.
Critics argue that the IB Programme is desiged such that the students are trained to learn in an academically demanding environment at a younger age than students studying other (presumably) less demanding courses do, in an aim to better prepare the students for their further academic endeavour. Therefore, the argument maintains, that AIC itself is not as responsible for producing premature leavers as these students make out to be.
In 2005, a former AIC teacher launched a lawsuit against the school, blaming the school for placing her under its "extremely stressful" working conditions, which caused her a significant mental distress. AIC won the lawsuit in early 2006, which prompted the teacher to appeal her case to a higher court. As of July 2006, the case has not been settled.