2026

Since its launch in 2017, the GEL programme has reached 32,000 learners across 100 centers in more than 30 countries. Cambridge University has supported the program through teacher training initiatives and the creation of learning materials and exams, with over 30,000 Cambridge English tests taken to date.

Pope Francis raised climate change to global consciousness as the defining moral issue of our time. As a result, the Church has become a global voice urging political accountability and personal responsibility for healing the planet. Building on his legacy, Pope Leo vigorously calls for urgent climate action and emphasizes reimagining nature not as an object to be dominated, but a respected participant in a reciprocal relationship with humanity. This challenge is set within a framework called ‘Integral Ecology’, drawing attention to both the scientific and social dimensions of today’s ecological crisis and engaging the whole person – morally and spiritually – into action-based responses.

In the past eight years, the MAGIS Exchange program has impacted the lives of people all around the globe. They have operated in six regions worldwide, with a total global network of 42 Jesuit universities.

On May 4, 2026, Jesuit universities in Latin America and the United States celebrated the development of a web platform that optimizes the process of connecting classrooms globally. This project eliminates a long-standing barrier to connection and allows efficient transcontinental collaboration.

The International Association of Jesuit Engineering and Science Schools (IAJES) Ignatian Mentoring Program continues to grow as a meaningful initiative connecting faculty and staff across institutions, cultures, and regions. As part of an ongoing effort to reflect, learn, and improve, a participant experience survey was conducted to better understand the impact of the program.

In March 2026, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogotá hosted a distinguished delegation from the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College for an immersive academic experience on democratic resilience. More than a study visit, this initiative represents a concrete expression of the mission of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU): to mobilize Jesuit higher education as a global force for justice, dialogue, and the strengthening of democratic societies.

On 30-31 March 2026, the Board of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) met at the General Curia in Rome to review the ongoing implementation of the Strategic Agenda (2024-2028) and the priorities defined at the Assembly in Bogotá in July 2025. At that Assembly, leaders from around the world identified six major challenges at the global level: democracy and global citizenship, student mental and spiritual health, secularization, Artificial Intelligence, migration and refugees, and environmental justice, along with a call to concretely increase collaboration among institutions.

Scholars, researchers, and academic leaders from Jesuit universities around the world gathered from 9 to 12 March 2026 at the Ateneo de Manila University for the Inaugural Symposium of the Global Research Alliance of Jesuit Universities (GRAJU), marking a major milestone in global collaboration among Jesuit institutions of higher education.

In February 2026, the music program at the University of Alberto Hurtado, located in Chile, collaborated with the Franz Liszt Conservatory of Weimar, Germany, to bring Indigenous Chilean music to Germany. This event strengthened inter-regional ties, and reaffirmed UAH’s promise to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding through music.

In an effort to promote formative experiences that translate the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) into concrete practices of learning, service, and discernment, the Universidad Iberoamericana Torréon, through its Ignite Ignatian Pedagogical Clinic, developed the Formation Plan for Catechists of the Parish of Santa María de las Parras.