The Beshara School is an absolutely unique educational centre and invaluable educational resource
I have always been most impressed by the aims and standards of the Beshara School
Academic References
Six-month courses have been running at the School in Scotland since 1975. Over the years academics from a wide range of disciplines have come there to give lectures and hold workshops. Below are extracts of letters some of them have written.
To the best of my knowledge, there is not any really comparable non-denominational, non-sectarian centre for integrated spiritual studies open to students of all backgrounds, either in the UK or in other Commonwealth countries, which explains why Beshara consistently attracts – and also depends upon – the flow of interested students around the world.
In my own considered judgment, based on more than three decades of wide professional experience with dozens of centres for spiritual education and contemplative studies around the world (the vast majority tied to specific religious traditions), the Beshara School is an absolutely unique educational centre and invaluable educational resource -not merely within the UK and Europe, but indeed on an increasingly global scale
Professor James W. Morris
Dept. of Theology, Boston College, USA
I have been associated with the Beshara School for over 25 years in the capacity of visiting lecturer and friend of the School. I have always been most impressed by the aims and standards of the Beshara School. I can vouch that it is a genuine educational establishment, and one that is unique in Britain, in that it offers a holistic and transforming course of religious and spiritual education to the students who take its courses.
On my visits to Chisholme I have always found the students to be very motivated and inspired by what they are studying and the quality of the teaching and learning experience. I found the quality of their attention to my lectures second to none. Many other academics, some very distinguished and from the international field, have visited the Beshara School, and all I know have commented very favourably on what the Beshara School does for its students.
Alan Williams, MA (Oxon) PhD. (Lond.)
Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion
Department of Religions and Theology,
University of Manchester
Having been associated with the School for more than twenty years, I can confirm that it provides intensive spiritual and philosophical courses to a wide variety of students from many countries, leading not to any formal qualifications but to a much deeper understanding of fundamental philosophical and spiritual concepts and methodologies.
Ralph Austin (Dr.)
Senior Lecturer in Arabic (Retired)
University of Durham (1963-1988)