Perspectives for the Marist International Network of Higher Education Institutions

Let’s walk as a global charismatic family

The beginning of the 21st century is characterised by rapid and intense transformations that impact social life and generate new patterns in higher education. In a society that is characterised as more open and competitive, surrounded by global communication networks and with an accelerated expansion of understanding moving towards new forms of work, the traditional model and role of the university is being questioned, including its forms of operation that were in force until recently.

Involved in the social issues that envelop the contemporary world, the University needs to be the place where fundamental issues that touch the individual and society are discussed. The University cannot lose touch with human reality. It is up to each one of us and to the University, as an institution, to create and strengthen communities of people committed to building an ever more effective solidarity through respect for life and all that is human. University education must contribute to the integral development of the person: spirit and body, intelligence, sensitivity, aesthetic sense, personal responsibility, spirituality.

Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Ex corde ecclesiae, in 1990, wrote:

“A Catholic University, like any University, is immersed in human society; as an extension of its service to the Church, and always within its proper competence, it is called on to become an ever more effective instrument of cultural progress for individuals as well as for society. Included among its research activities, therefore, will be a study of serious contemporary problems in areas such as the dignity of human life, the promotion of justice for all, the quality of personal and family life, the protection of nature, the search for peace and political stability, a more just sharing in the world’s resources, and a new economic and political order that will better serve the human community at a national and international level.

Therefore, the locus of the Academy will necessarily be its role in society, given that in the process of production of academic knowledge it must be included in the social environment, because from this arises the foundation for the understanding of physical or social phenomena, and on the other hand, this knowledge must be socialised, returned to society in the form of solutions generated by the process of knowledge production itself.

As a Marist Institute, our mission is widespread and geographically present in many settings, realities and countries. In this way, greater coordination in a network becomes a possibility to face together, and with better conditions and benefits, the reality we live in today. Based on the inspirations of the XXII General Chapter of the Marist Institute in 2017, the Marist International Network of Higher Education Institutions (IHE) seeks to strengthen its practices, processes and interactions among the 27 member institutions of the network.

The executive committee, together with university leaders, is working to build a network organisational model, looking for the best strategies and tools to build a solid network, with interconnectivity of projects that are beneficial to the institutions, produce synergy and generate results for teachers, researchers, leaders and students.

During the last two years, surveys have been conducted with university leaders to understand the reality and challenges that involve the institutions, to find points of synergy that promote the coordination of common and specific projects, according to the characteristics of the institutions. The results of the survey indicate the need to articulate some areas of our institutions, share good practices and reflections on common issues in Higher Education.

The calendar of activities for the coming months is available at this link, and institutions are encouraged to participate actively and protagonist.

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Bro. Manuir Mentges, President of the Marist International Network of Higher Education Institutions.