IFCU, 240 universities "A Global Voice for a Common Future since 1924"

IFCU, 240 universities "A Global Voice for a Common Future since 1924"

IFCU, 240 universities "A Global Voice for a Common Future since 1924"

IFCU, 240 universities "A Global Voice for a Common Future since 1924"

Statement of support for the Lebanese Catholic university community

The International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU) particularly wishes to express its support for Lebanese Catholic higher education institutions and to emphasize that these institutions have always worked for peace, serving as places of tolerance and dialogue.

Click on the image to read the full Statement

IN MEMORIAM

 

In Memoriam
Franco Anelli (1963-2024)

On behalf of Catholic academia and its Administrative Board, the International Federation of Catholic Universities wishes to remember Franco Anelli as a man of great culture and humanity, an eminent academic who led with wisdom and foresight. He honored us with his presence at numerous meetings organized by the Federation over the past twenty years, the last of which was held on the occasion of the Federation’s centennial celebrations in Rome last January.

Our deepest condolences go to his family, friends and the entire community of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and Policlinico Gemelli, to which he dedicated his life.

Isabel Capeloa Gil – President
François Mabille – Secretary General
The IFCU Administrative Board

SAVE THE DATES!

 

JULY 28th - August 1st, 2025 - IFCU GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2025

The International Federation of Catholic Universities will organize its XXVIII General Assembly at the Universidad del Valle de Atemejac in July 2025 on the following topic: “Catholic Universities as Choreographers of Knowledge: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the International Federation of Catholic Universities”

IFCU CENTENARY 1924-2024

Pope Francis addresses the International Federation of Catholic Universities on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its foundation

Your Eminence, Your Excellencies,
Dear brothers and sisters!

[I was planning to deliver a lengthy address, but I am a bit short of breath; as you can see, this cold is not going away! I am giving you the text so that you can read it for yourselves. I thank all of you for this meeting and for all the good that our Catholic universities do by communicating knowledge, the word of God and an authentic humanism. Never tire of persevering in the splendid mission of Catholic universities. It is not their confessional status that gives them their identity: that is one aspect, but not the only one. It is perhaps that clear humanism which makes people realize that human beings have values and that these need to be respected. This is perhaps the finest and greatest thing about your universities. Thank you very much.]

Click on the image to read the address of the Holy Father

 

Experience the Federation Centenary Conference in video

Experience the Federation Centenary Conference in pictures

Watch the speeches on our YouTube channel

NEWS

IFCU Declaration on the situation in the Middle East

The International Federation of Catholic Universities strongly condemns the unprecedented outbreak of violence in the Middle East and the violent attacks against innocent citizens. The Federation calls for Peace, tolerance, respect for others, for Human Dignity and International Law.

Click on the image to read the full Statement

Statement by the International Federation of Catholic Universities on the seizure of Catholic universities in Nicaragua

The International Federation of Catholic Universities strongly condemns the seizure of universities by the Nicaraguan government as a grave act of aggression against the freedom, quality and autonomy of education. The recent confiscation of the assets and the attacks against the leadership, faculty and students of the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua destroys a globally recognized pillar of higher education and infringes on the right of access to quality education for thousands of students. This action builds on the previous closure in March of the San Juan Pablo II University in a deliberate attack against Catholic higher education.

Click on the image to read the full Statement

VISIT THE NEW ASEACCU WEBSITE!

The Association of Southeast and East Asian Catholic Colleges and Universities (ASEACCU) formed in 1991 and has grown to include Catholic colleges and universities across the regions of East and Southeast Asia. We function as a forum for members to engage in open dialogue, share resources, and reflect on our identities as Catholic institutions. As an affiliated association of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), we represent East and Southeast Asian Catholic higher education to the rest of the Catholic world and beyond.

Click on the image to visit the ASEACCU Website

30th ASEACCU Annual Conference “What makes a Catholic University Catholic? Expressing and Integrating Identity and Mission”

The 30th ASEACCU Annual Conference was held from August 21st to Aug 23rd, 2024, in Sydney, Australia. An important and annual gathering within the ASEACCU community, this year’s Conference was hosted by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and welcomed over 200 Conference delegates and guests.

On August 22, IFCU sponsored the following Rector’s Panel: Catholic universities and social impact – what does the future hold with the participation of Prof. Zlatko Skrbis (ACU), Prof. Lucia Shih-Ling Lin (Providence University), Prof. Francis Yi Chen  Lan (Fu Jen Catholic University) and our President Prof. Isabel Capeloa Gil (Catholic University of Portugal)

Building Bridges: Communication, Identity and Trust – Rome, September 16-18, 2024


As part of the centenary of the IFCU, the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in collaboration with ODUCAL, has brought together more than 50 Communicators from Catholic Universities coming from Latin America, Spain and Italy.

The meeting aimed to reflect on the role that those responsible for communication of Catholic universities have in consolidating critical thinking, constructive dialogue and trust.

Replay of the Conference! (Click on the image)

The Conference “The Geopolitics of Higher Education” was organized jointly by IFCU and the COMECE.

Seton Hall Hosts International Think Tank Meeting on the Implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae

The Catholic Studies working group of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU) held an eye-opening meeting about current trends in Catholic higher education and opportunities for universities to put into practice the principles explained in St. John Paul II’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

Africa Peace and Development Network Webinar – 6 November – A Holistic Approach to Peace/History Education

Global Peace events take place every Wednesday from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. East Africa Time (EAT), using the same link, thanks to generous offers from peacebuilders, development professionals, academics, researchers, activists and intellectuals from around the world.

Our next training session “Leading Catholic Universities in the XXIst Century” will be organized from September 14 to 19, 2025. It will be hosted by the Pontifical Irish College.

Our 2024 session focused on the specificity of Catholic identity, including the nature of a Catholic university, the Catholic intellectual tradition, etc. It was also oriented to specific issues in the management, quality assurance and social responsibility of such institutions. The group composed by university executives coming from Angola, Congo DR, France, Lebanon, Palestine, Nigeria, The Philippines, Uganda and Uruguay attended a Papal Audience and met with authorities of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and AVEPRO.

PUBLICATIONS

The Future of Teaching and Researching

Higher education has gone through dramatic transformations over the past two decades, and is bound to be altered even more significantly by 2030. Educational technology will evidently continue to play a major role in these changes, but other rising trends will have an equally disrupting impact. This report focuses on how the academic profession will evolve in the new landscape that is dawning for instructors and researchers.

The report offers an overview of this changing landscape, and relies on a number of possible scenarios – each of which prioritizes a selection of key potential transformations in the global economic, social and political environment that may take place by 2030 – to lay the ground for further reflection on how universities and aspiring faculty may best prepare for what already appears as a watershed moment for the higher education sector.

The report is available on the IFCU collaborative platform. Click here

Youth cultures in Catholic universities

IFCU published the Working Document “Towards a better understanding of youth’s cultures and values” (available in English) which takes up, on the one hand, some of the trends that have emerged in recent years with regard to young people, their values, their interests, their beliefs, their attitudes. On the other hand, the document presents the results of the second phase of the global study on young people studying in Catholic universities, as well as a series of key questions aimed at provoking the reader’s reflection.

The Geopolitics of Higher Education

The geopolitical tensions that are now dominating the international landscape had been brewing for years, making it clear even before Russia’s war against Ukraine that the global order was transitioning back toward great-power politics. Higher education has been playing a prominent role in this shifting alignment, as a significant instrument of soft power and vector of global influence – which means that university leaders need to pay more attention to their regional and the global geopolitical environment.

The report is available on the IFCU collaborative platform. Click here

picto mission and identite main avec un coeur

Mission and Identity

pito academic

Academic Catholic Leadership

IFCU

The Network of Catholic Higher Education