Mission

" Catholic higher education aims at forming men and women who are able to engage in critical thinking, who are endowed with high level professionalism but also with rich humaneness, through which their skills are put to the service of the common good."

Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating today and tomorrow: a renewing passion, Instrumentum laboris, 2014 

"They want to be protagonists: let us give them room so they may be protagonists, guiding them — obviously —and giving them the tools to develop all of this growth. For this I believe that the harmonious integration of different spheres of knowledge — of the mind, the heart and the hands — will help them to build their character."

Address of His Holiness Pope Francis, Pastoral Conference of the Diocese of Rome, 19 June 2017


 

A Catholic University for the 3rd millennium

Founded in 1875, the Université Catholique de Lille is a federation of varied institutions of higher education and research, and of institutes in the fields of healthcare, social action, and social medicine, serving its students and the university community.  All of these contribute to the overall life of the university with an aim of general interest and public utility.  

The activities of these institutions have been shaped by human and Christian values since its foundation.  The UCLille offers its students an integral learning experience combining self-discovery, solidarity with all living beings, and for those who wish, openness to God.  Such an education requires a multidisciplinary approach so that all see themselves as citizens of the world and members of the human family.

Through teaching, research, and care, through resources that make creative innovations possible, and through its student life and the services it offers, the Université Catholique de Lille continues the reorientation of humanity in love – in “an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone” (Laudato si’, n° 202). The University builds on its Catholic origins, combining respect for the dignity of each person with a sense of spatial and temporal wholeness.

In accord with the social dimension in the Gospel, members of the University emphasize the call of everyone to live upright lives, free, responsible, and supportive of the present and future common good.  Through hope, they believe that every person and every society has the capacity for progress, and refuse the inevitability of failure and exclusion.
 

Building on these foundations, the University federation accomplishes its mission according to the following principles:

  • To implement an integral education, scientific, technical, professional, human, and spiritual; to encourage students to acquire an ability to comprehend complex subjects globally by entering into co-creative relationships with other students and experts from differing disciplines
  • To promoting excellence by developing fundamental and applied research at the highest level, guaranteeing the quality of the education offered, while promoting reflection on the human, social, and environmental consequences of discoveries made
  • To stimulate collaboration by opening up hybrid ecosystems for students and teacher-researchers that promote intercultural and interdisciplinary work in the service of a positive vision of the world
  • Promote the critical questioning of society so that every person, at each stage of life, can pursue freedom in the service of development and solidarity
  • Promote both equality and diversity, at all levels and in all places.

The institution both supports and is supported by the local region and community. Over time, fruitful relationships have been established with various groups and individuals, entrepreneurs and institutions, both locally and internationally, particularly through its participation in the Union of Catholic Higher Education Institutions ((UDESCA), the Federation of Catholic Universities of Europe (FUCE), the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC) and the Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE) of Lille, and lastly in accordance with the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae (15 August 1990) and its ordinances for France (7 November 2009).

 

Downloadable documents