Knowledge is the path and the answer.

As processes of isolation increase around the world, Sophia University Institute opens a courageous new Centre for Global Studies which will “provide tools for understanding, managing and changing processes of global relations,” explained Pasquale Ferrara, Italian Ambassador to Algeria and president of the new Centre. “The new centre is the result of ten years of academic experience, and its goal is the training of a new generation of leaders that is capable of facing the complexity, and motivated to work for dialogue and peace.”

“No country, no group can allow itself to become isolated from the other,” said Paolo Frizzi, professor of Religions and Global Processes, and Director of the Centre. “We are in the middle of an uncertain passage, which is transient and happening on many levels.

Sophia Institute, the result of Chiara Lubich’s intuition, has tripled its offerings this year: Master Degree in Economics and Management, Trinitarian Ontology and Culture of Unity, with their respective doctorates.

President Msgr Piero Coda explains: “The complex nature of the national and global horizon requires a relentless effort oriented towards the unity of the human family guided by a new thought. In these ten years, Sophia has grown into an Intercultural, inter and trans-disciplinary centre where an integral relationship is nurtured among study, experience and research.”

As of today, 400 students from 50 countries have chosen Sophia. There have been 130 Master Degrees and twenty doctorates.
For graduate student Elena De Stefanis, who graduated in Philosopy and has a Master Degree in Culture of Unity, studying at Sophia meant “overcoming hyper-specialization with an educational approach that relates humanistic, technical and philosophical studies.  

Focolare president Maria Voce and Vice Chancellor of the Institute, spoke at the inauguration: “Sophia is a dream that materialized. It has the face of all the people who are educated in its halls. We all feel in our own skin the urgent challenges that are presented by today’s society, articulated challenges calling for responses on many levels. Education is one of these levels, especially higher education as here at IUS.

Humankind’s creativity and desire to understand reality and respond to it, seem to inter-penetrate in a university setting. Knowledge is the path and the answer to many of the evils we find in front of us. This is where IUS comes in, making a “very unique contribution from the viewpoint of content and methodology.”

“In this Institute,” she explains, “theoretical reflection is visibly linked to practical living. You are engaged in academic courses that are inter and trans-disciplinary. It is possible to delve into diverse disciplines and give a more integral contribution to the development of thought and action. It requires you to establish relationships of sincere trust and mutual esteem with everyone, to the point of becoming a community of life and reflection.”

These are demanding and innovative goals, but. “we must not fall short,” Maria Voce continues. “Here at Sophia we have already started to move towards our goals, even though we are well-aware of the challenges that lie ahead for our institute to consolidate and develop.”

Economist and IUS instructor, Luigino Bruni, adds “When the students complete their studies, the young people will return to their own countries with new interdisciplinary and relational skills that will be extremely sought by employers.” “Today there is much demand for professionals all round to face the challenges of globalization.”