Global UST

Rooted in Encounter and Dialogue and a Future of Innovative Growth

UST’s strategic vision, Greater Things, launched the University into an exciting new era of global encounter and dialogue on campus and abroad. Leveraging international partnerships to those ends required increasing the number of international partnerships, diversifying the geography of those relationships, and pioneering new forms and modes of academic collaboration. These initiatives stem from and feed the integration of what has become known as “UST Global” with making UST a leader in Catholic higher education, a premier place, and financially sound.

This new phase for “UST Global” builds upon UST’s strong legacy of international education, which began with the University’s first group study abroad to Merida, Mexico, in the early 1970s and continued with the establishment of the centers for Thomistic Studies (1975), International Studies (1981), and Irish Studies (2003). Under former president Dr. Joseph “Tip” McFadden, a visionary advocate for international engagement, UST became a founding member of the International Council of Universities in the Spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas (ICUSTA) in 1993. Continuing this legacy, the University rejoined the International Federation of Catholic Universities in 2022, and is currently exploring an affiliation with the Organization of Catholic Universities in Latin America & the Caribbean.

Between 1996 and 2021, UST’s global footprint expanded to 17 sister universities across 12 countries in the Americas, East Asia, and Western Europe. During this time, an average of 90 Celts studied abroad each year through semester and short-term programs. Since the launch of “UST Global” in 2022, that number has increased to approximately 120 students annually. The university now partners with over 40 sister institutions in 21 countries, including new collaborations in Central Europe, India, Kenya, and Lebanon. This growth has been fueled by increased community support for the UST Study Abroad Scholarship.

The “UST Global” initiative seeks to unlock new opportunities for academic collaboration, guided by UST’s Catholic mission. By creating new academic pathways beyond the traditional student semester exchanges, UST will be a premier place for international students from all over the world.

Many of the new partnerships require innovative and entrepreneurial market analysis, program design, business models, and technology. While each one is driven by the “UST Global” vision, they also contribute to UST’s goals of being a leader in Catholic higher education, a premier place, and financially stable.

In 2022, UST launched a new form of international student recruitment—the Graduate Transfer Pathway Agreement—as an addition to traditional international student enrollment.

These agreements welcome graduate students from sister universities for a “gap year” in their home studies to pursue UST graduate programs in Business and International Studies. UST’s MA Diplomacy & Strategic Studies is currently home to 15 students from the Catholic University of Vendée (ICES) and Tamkang University (Taiwan). UST’s MBA Program expects the first cohort of ICES students in fall 2025. Pathway agreements have recently been finalized with sister universities in Mexico and Taiwan.

The Solidarity Project launched in 2024, with the Pontifical University of Mexico (UPM) is one groundbreaking example as it launches the first fully virtual academic collaboration between American and Mexican universities in which the academic focus is on master’s degrees taught entirely in Spanish. Offered by UST’s Semillero Center (MA Biblical and MA Pastoral Studies) and supported by course development and instruction by the UPM pontifical faculty, graduates of this program have the unique opportunity to pursue UPM’s Ecclesiastical Diploma in Pastoral Theology. More than 30 Semillero Center graduates are now pursuing this diploma from UPM.

One of the most recent additions to “UST’s Global” family is with Assumption University in Ontario, Canada. This agreement marks a new chapter in UST’s relationships with Basilian institutions of higher education. This collaboration creates a virtual Graduate Transfer Pathway Agreement between Assumption University’s Certificate in Catholic Studies and UST’s Nesti Center for Faith and Culture’s MA in Faith and Culture.

Faculty and students also benefit by engaging with a diverse student body, enriching classroom dynamics, and cross-cultural learning. This exposure to students from various educational systems and cultural backgrounds allows Celts to adapt to different perspectives and welcome a global context to their educational environment.

Going global enriches the University community and student experience in countless ways. UST’s open door to the world allows for that incomparable encounter with people of every culture so that we may all engage in a more expansive and fertile dialogue so essential to our Catholic mission.