Deans of Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies met online.

In January, 23 deans and delegates from 19 Kircher faculties of Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies met online to identify common projects in teaching and learning that are concrete, add value to the fulfillment of our apostolic mission, and can be started this year.

The meeting was chaired by the President of the Kircher Network, Philip Geister, S.J., while the deans of the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Loyola Institute – Trinity College, and the Loyola University Andalusia, Philipp Renczes, S.J., Michael Kirwan, S.J., and Gonzalo Villagrán, S.J., moderated the brainstorming sessions of the groups.

The deans agreed to start preparing the following projects:

• Mobility Project for Faculty and Students:It will foster and increase short time faculty mobility and student mobility using Erasmus+ and other resources.
• Sharing and Opening Courses and Expertise Project: The initiative will foster the sharing of existing curricula and online materials among the faculties and open up online courses to the extent that intellectual property rights allow. The project will also organize periodical Online Lectures with scholars from the faculties. The webinars will be offered to students as a part of their academic programs.
• Preparing an online course on one of the HEST´s topics:The initiative will seek to prepare online materials and prepare a blended seminar on one of the HEST’s topics. The course would be offered in English to baccalaureate and license students.

The deans agreed to postpone preparing an online interdisciplinary course on the challenges facing theology in Europe until the conference on the Role of Theology in Europe can take place.