2025-2026

Welcome to Our Year in Review

Michael Pippenger. A man with short gray hair and a blue plaid sport coat smiles directly at the viewer in an office with a bookshelf.

As I reflect on the past year, I'm reminded of a simple but powerful truth: the University of Notre Dame's global efforts are strongest when they are rooted in relationships. Whether we're welcoming international students and scholars to campus, supporting faculty partnerships across our global network, or creating transformative opportunities for students to learn abroad—we are strengthened by the people and communities with whom we work.

Throughout each year, Notre Dame Global and our campus partners continue to build and deepen these relationships. The inaugural Global Partners Conference brought university representatives from around the world to campus to share ideas and imagine new possibilities for collaboration.

Notre Dame faculty and their international counterparts are working together on climate resilience, food insecurity, public health, and sustainability. They’re also addressing the human realities of conflict—work that’s never been more important. Our partnership with Ukrainian Catholic University continues to show how shared faith, fellowship, and research can offer hope and support resilience in a time of profound hardship.

At our global locations, we create spaces for scholarship, conversation, and cultural interaction—allowing Notre Dame to contribute to and learn from the local communities we serve.

And as for our students—they remain at the very heart of our mission. Notre Dame’s recognition as a top producer of Gilman Scholars over the program’s first 25 years, and as a top producer of Fulbright students for the 12th consecutive year, reinforces the ambition and continual curiosity of our students. They are pursuing experiences that connect academic learning with professional development, service, research, and personal growth.

As you read these stories, I hope you will see that global engagement is not limited to any one unit, division, or location. Each of us has a role to play in helping Notre Dame become a more global institution and a more connected global family. Together, we can continue to advance Notre Dame’s mission as a leading global Catholic research university—one that serves the common good and helps build a more just and compassionate world.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us.

In Notre Dame,