It was at the initiative of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan, Italy) and of the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (Nijmegen, Netherlands) that preliminary steps were taken in 1924 to bring together the Catholic universities in a Federation to discuss specific issues of common concern. These endeavours were concretised the following year during a meeting at the Institut Catholique de Paris where 14 universities from the various parts of the world were represented at a first General Assembly. It was only after the Second World War that the Fœderatio Universitatum Catholicarum took off. It was recognised by a Decree of the Holy See in 1948 and by Pope Pius XII in 1949. It became the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU) in 1965.

L'Università Cattolica in collaborazione con la FIUC e la Congregazione per l'Educazione Cattolica organizza dal 17 al 19 settembre 2015 il Colloquium Internazionale “Right to Food, Peace and Democracy. Research and Education in an ethical perspective”.