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"

Visit the new version of IFCU's collaborative platform

Is your institution affiliated to IFCU?

If so, please request your login details from the General Secretariat

Message of Condolences on the Passing of His Holiness Pope Francis

The International Federation of Catholic Universities expresses its profound sorrow at the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis, a shepherd of immense compassion, vision, and wisdom. His pontificate has been a beacon for humanity, particularly for the academic world, which he consistently called to a higher sense of responsibility, solidarity, and service.

Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis emphasized the vital role of Catholic universities in shaping a more just, humane, and sustainable world. He saw in our institutions not only centers of learning, but communities of discernment and hope—spaces where faith and reason meet, and where new generations are formed to be builders of peace and dialogue.

IFCU was honored to meet with the Holy Father on several occasions. In these encounters, he challenged us to go beyond intellectual excellence and to embrace what he called the “culture of encounter.” He reminded us that education is never neutral: it either contributes to building a culture of life and inclusion, or it risks reinforcing indifference and exclusion. In his words and actions, Pope Francis entrusted Catholic universities with a mission—to be laboratories of fraternity, homes of ecological conversion, and instruments of integral human development.

His address to the academic community at the Catholic University of Portugal during the World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023 remains a landmark. In it, he invited students and educators alike to be “poets of social change.” His appeal to link academic inquiry with ethical and ecological responsibility echoed the heart of his encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, which continue to inspire our work.

As a Federation that unites Catholic higher education institutions across the globe, we pledge to carry forward the vision Pope Francis so compellingly articulated. His legacy calls us to form consciences, foster dialogue, promote peace, and accompany the marginalized—especially the young, the poor, and the planet itself.

We offer our prayers for the eternal rest of His Holiness and extend our condolences to the global Catholic community. May his life and teachings continue to guide Catholic universities in their mission to transform the world through truth, compassion, and faith.

Isabel Capeloa Gil
IFCU President

 

IFCU GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2025! REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

 

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

The Pope to artists “Art is not a luxury”, but “a necessity of the spirit”.

Isabel Capeloa Gil, our President, represented FIUC and took part in the jubilee of artists and the world of culture. She was one of the speakers at the international conference entitled “Sharing Hope. Horizons for cultural heritage”. The conference was held on February 15 in the Vatican Museums, as part of the cultural initiatives organized for the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, which took place in Rome from February 16 to 18, 2025.

On the occasion of the Jubilee of Artists, a mass was celebrated on Sunday February 16 in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In his homily, read by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, to artists and men of culture, the Pope affirmed that he sees them as guardians of the beatitudes and beauty, while inviting them to educate in hope. (Homily)

Africa Peace and Development Network Webinar – 16 April 2025 – Why Most Peace Research should be Action Research

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.

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.

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