There are numerous wizarding schools across the world, though only eight of them are formally and fully registered with the Educational Office of the International Confederation of Warlocks, owing to the long, arduous and demanding process of certification. The eight schools that are registered with the ICW are concurrently considered the most prestigious wizarding institutions in the world.

Young witches and wizards from a country which doesn't possess a registered magical school will either send an application to one of the registered schools closest to them, or be homeschooled and study via correspondence courses, as most typically do. Alternatively, they may enroll in one of the many unregistered schools -- however, due to lack of supervision by the Educational Office, some are wary of sending their children to such establishments, as the quality of education cannot be guaranteed.

Nevertheless, there are unregistered schools that are considered desirable, as they are supervised by the ministries of magic in the countries in which they are located, and genereally adhere to ICW standards even if they choose not to go through registration. Some of them are, indeed, more ancient than the eight prestigious schools, albeit generally smaller and certainly less well known.

The eight officially registered schools and institutions of Witchcraft and Wizardry are the following:

• Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (Pyrenees, France)


• Castelobruxo (Amazon rainforest, Brazil)


• Durmstrang Institute (northern Scandinavia)


• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Argyllshire, Scotland, United Kingdom)


• Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Mount Greylock, Massachusetts, United States of America)


• Koldovstoretz (Russia)


• Mahoutokoro (Minami Iwo Jima, Japan)


• Uagadou (Mountains of the Moon, Uganda)

Outside of general magical education, the wizarding world offers a variety of other schools which specialize in different aspects and variations of magic including the Academy of Broom Flying, Charm School, Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages, Merge School of Under-Water Spellage, Naaszcademy of Magizoology and the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts.

The prestigious wizarding schools often collaborate with one another in various ways. For example, every five years, a competition known as the Triwizard Tournament used to be held between the three major European wizarding schools: Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts. One champion was selected to represent each school (with the exception of the 1994 Triwizard Tournament, when Hogwarts ended up with two champions) to compete in an array of deadly challenges. The winning school received the Triwizard Cup. The Wizarding Schools Potions Championship was held in seven-year intervals between students of Hogwarts, Koldovstoretz, Mahoutokoro and Uagadou. The winning school received a golden cauldron. Castelobruxo in Brazil offered student exchange programmes to pupils at wizarding schools in Europe. There was also an international pen-friend programme in place for students of Castelobruxo and Hogwarts.