The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

The Diploma Programme is a rigorous pre-university course of study designed for students in the 16 to 19 age range. It is a broad-based two-year course that aims to encourage students to be knowledgeable and inquiring, but also caring and compassionate. There is a strong emphasis on encouraging students to develop intercultural understanding, open-mindedness, and the attitudes necessary for them to respect and evaluate a range of points of view. 

The Diploma Programme model

The course is presented as six academic areas enclosing a central core (see figure 1). It encourages the concurrent study of a broad range of academic areas. Students study two modern languages (or a modern language and a classical language), a humanities or social science subject, an experimental science, mathematics and one of the creative arts. It is this comprehensive range of subjects that makes the Diploma Programme a demanding course of study designed to prepare students effectively for university entrance. In each of the academic areas students have flexibility in making their choices, which means they can choose subjects that particularly interest them and that they may wish to study further at university. 

 
 
 

The core of the Diploma Programme model

All Diploma Programme students participate in the three elements of the IB Diploma Programme core. 

  • The theory of knowledge (TOK) course encourages students to think about the nature of knowledge, to reflect on the process of learning in all their subjects, and to see and understand the connections between them. 

  • The extended essay, a substantial piece of academic writing of up to 4,000 words, enables students to investigate a topic of special interest that they have chosen themselves; this encourages the development of independent research skills expected at university. 

  • CAS involves students in a range of enjoyable and significant experiences, as well as a CAS project. 


Coherence in the core 

Strongly committed to the principle of developing the whole person, the IB believes that this is best achieved by identifying and developing clearer and more explicit aims for and relationships among the three elements of the Diploma Programme core: TOK, CAS and the extended essay. Specifically, the IB believes a coherent view of the core will: 

  • support the interconnectedness of learning

  • support concurrency of learning

  • support the IB continuum of education and the learner profile

  • support a broader view of the subject disciplines.

Coherence in this context refers to the three elements of the core complementing each other and working together to achieve common aims. All three elements of the core should be grounded in three coherent aims: 

  • support, and be supported by, the academic disciplines

  • foster international-mindedness

  • develop self-awareness and a sense of identity.