IFCU-International Federation of Catholic Universities

It was at the initiative of the Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore (Milan, Italy) and of the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (Nijmegen, Netherlands) that preliminary steps were taken in 1924 to bring together the Catholic universities in a Federation to discuss specific issues of common concern. These endeavours were concretised the following year during a meeting at the Institut Catholique de Paris where 14 universities from the various parts of the world were represented at a first General Assembly. It was only after the Second World War that the Fœderatio Universitatum Catholicarum took off. It was recognised by a Decree of the Holy See in 1948 and by Pope Pius XII in 1949. It became the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU) in 1965. IFCU collaborates actively with the Congregation for Catholic Education. The end of the cold war, the Bologna agreements and the revolution in information and communication technologies have contributed to a lasting transformation of the landscape of higher education and research. It is now possible to speak of a globalization of higher education and research, or even of a market, which has numerous regulating bodies, of different nature, such as: - Scientific bodies of course, which structure the development of the disciplines, - National and regional political authorities, - Forums for dialogue and concertation, such as the OECD or the World Economic Forum, - International rankings… It is this reality that today constitutes the environment of the International Federation of Catholic Universities. This environment, IFCU must at the same time take it into account, analyze its advantages and also perceive its limitations, and offer its reflections in order to improve the societal role of universities and to place particular emphasis on the role of the Catholic universities in this new configuration.