Leading Catholic Universities in the 21st Century in Rome

This 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.

Several invited speakers addressed several topics in this program such as Rev. Stephen Morgan, IFCU Vice-President for Asia on the Catholic Identity of our universities in a lecture "The identity of Catholic Universities in the 21st century: embedding Catholic values in institutional practice, and the opportunities and challenges".

Dr. Corinne Mellul, IFCU Head of the Foresight Unit, made a presentation on AI in Higher Education, Dr. Montserrat Alom, Director of the IFCU-CIRAD, presented the IFCU Evaluation Framework to assess the Social Responsbility of Catholic Universities, Anthony MacClaran, Vice-Chancellor of St. Mary’s University (London), addressed the system of Quality Assurance in Higher Education. The program could also count on presentations given by Riccardo Cinquegrani, Director of the AVEPRO (Agency for the Evaluation and Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Faculties), Celia DEANE-DRUMMOND
Director of the Laudato Si Institute at Oxford, on The sustainability Agenda. and Fr. José Maria LA PORTE from the Pontifical University of Santa Croce who adressed the following topic: "Research as a service to the mission: the driving force of purpose in the organization’s activity".

The group attended a Papal Audience and had a fruitful meeting with Dr. Antonella Sciaronne, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

The Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Fr. Mark Lewis, SJ, invited our participants for a visit and dinner where Father Armand Puig i Tàrrech, AVEPRO President, had the opportunity to present the work of the Quality Assurance Agency of the Holy See.

We dearly thank the participants from the Pontifical University Javeriana (Colombia), University of Saint Joseph (Macao - SAR), Madonna University (Nigeria), the University of San Agustin (Philippines), De La Salle University (Philippines), ULADECH (Peru), St. Augustine College (South Africa), Uganda Martyrs University (Uganda), St. Mary’s University (United Kingdom), Catholic Distance University (USA) for their commitment to Catholic Higher Education, our invited speakers and our professors: John Davies, Chris Brink and David Lock who organized this program in collaboration with the IFCU Secretariat.