The University of the Incarnate Word is partnering with three other Catholic universities to grow its system of national and international offerings by connecting degree offerings and more, the institution announced Monday.
“There’s an apostolic letter from Pope Leo that came out about a month ago in which he talks about Catholic institutions being like stars within the universe of education and they should be more like constellations in working together,” UIW President Thomas Evans said in an interview ahead of the announcement.
In the spirit of turning stars into constellations, Evans welcomed presidents Glena Temple, of Dominican University in Chicago, Susan Burns of University of Mount Saint Vincent in New York, and Gilberto Marxuach Torrós of Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to San Antonio to announce the collaboration.
The four presidents are signing a charter agreement to form a partnership called CHARISM, which stands for Catholic Higher Education Alliance of Rising Institutions in Service and Mission.
Under the new agreement effective Monday, students will be able to seamlessly transfer to any of these institutions if they want to pursue a degree specialty or practice in a different city.
“Charism is considered like the gift from God to a congregation of sort for their whole mission and orientation,” Evans said. “So these four institutions have very similar charisms and very similar missions.”
The work to arrive at the agreement started about a year ago, Evans said, when the four presidents began meeting at conferences for Catholic colleges and universities.
All four institutions are mission-driven Catholic, Hispanic-serving and minority-serving, also founded by women and seeking to expand their bilingual opportunities, Evans said, making this partnership ideal for growth.
The four presidents worked together to figure out how to align their strengths — for example, several have health care sector offerings that complimented each other. And how to also rely on each other to navigate their challenges.
Evans called the agreement a groundbreaking opportunity that will lead the universities to stronger future offerings, like faculty collaboration and combined research.
“[We are] looking at things like joint degree programs, double degree programs, study away, different kinds of mission trips, pre-professional programming,” Evans said. “It’s a really long list of things that we are embarking on.”
Once the main agreement is signed, the institutions can sign individual agreements for programs such as study away, Evans said, which could become available as early as spring 2026.
Soon students in different career paths might be able to find a specialty in one of these partner campuses and transfer to complete part of their degree at the desired institution, Evans said. Degree plans will be developed utilizing the specialties of the partnering universities.
UIW already has a system of international campuses for their students with standalone campuses in México City, Irapuato, México, and Strasbourg, France. This will be another opportunity for students from all four U.S. institutions to expand their knowledge, Evans said, and practice their skills in another city or country.
“So you know a student might want to start in New York, or in San Juan, or in Chicago and then end up in a professional program at the University of Incarnate Word, ” Evans said. “I really do think that this is groundbreaking for higher education.”