Keys to the Mondragon cooperative experience

Led by the LANKI Institute of Cooperative Research and Development, Mondragon Unibertsitatea

Visit and experience the Mondragon cooperative group in person!

Get trained online in Mondragon's cooperative experience!

KEYS TO THE MONDRAGON COOPERATIVE EXPERIENCE: AN ONLINE COURSE + OPTIONAL STUDY TOUR

An online course in English that will give you a detailed introduction to one of the most advanced cooperative ecosystems in the world: the Mondragon Cooperative Experience.

The audience for this course

Anyone interested in the Mondragon Cooperative Experience. They might be students or faculty in different fields (humanities, education, social sciences, business...) as well as researchers, co-op members or developers, or others. The course is aimed at all those interested in shared ownership, cooperative enterprise and the social economy generally.

Highlights

Study cooperative enterprise online.

Then visit and experience the Mondragon cooperative group in person (optional).

Prepared and guided by a faculty team with many years of experience collaborating closely with Mondragon and other cooperatives.

Led by the LANKI Institute of Cooperative Research and Development, Mondragon Unibertsitatea.

"You will get a close look at one of the world's leading cooperative ecosystems"

Programme

The program consists of two units: (1) an online course and (2) an optional, follow-up study-visit in Mondragon.

Online course (75 hours)

The course presents the main features of cooperative enterprise and the key elements of the Mondragon Cooperative Experience.

More specifically, it will cover:

An introduction to the concept of cooperative enterprise
The historical roots, development and keys features of the Mondragon cooperative experience (the sovereignty of labor, cooperative governance, intercooperation among co-ops, compensation and surplus policy, etc.)
The cooperative company as a tool for social transformation
Future challenges for cooperatives and Mondragon specifically

One week study-tour in Mondragon (optional)

The objective of the visit is to learn about the Mondragon cooperatives through direct contact and discussion, deepening participants’ knowledge of this social-business project. The visit is optional and will be organized if a minimum number of people who do the course commit to participating. In order to take part, a participant must have first completed the online course.

Dates

Online course

Start date: February 3, 2026.
End date: March 10, 2026.

Study-tour in Mondragon

Scheduled date for the stay of the group in Spanish: from 23 to 27 March 2026.
Scheduled date for the stay of the group in English: from 23 to 27 March 2026.

Note: If there is insufficient quorum to organize both stays separately, the two groups will undertake the stay jointly.

ADMISSION

Online course: unlimited.
Study-tour: Minimum required: 10 people. Maximum: 25 people.

FACULTY

The instructors are faculty members at the LANKI Institute of Cooperative Research of Mondragon Unibertsitatea.

COORDINATOR

Miren Zuberogoitia

Enrollment

To enroll in this course you must fill in the document and send it by email.

Enrollment form

Mail to: eescandon@mondragon.edu

Recgnition of credits

Full completion of this course (online unit + study-tour in Mondragon) will be recognized as equivalent to one module (5 credits/ECTS) in Mondragon Unibertsitatea’s Master's Degree in Cooperative Enterprise and Social Business Management.

Financial Assistance options

UNESCO Chair scholarships

This academic year, there will be a total of two scholarships financed through the UNESCO Chair Program on the Social and Solidarity Economy, of which Mondragon University is a member.

The scholarships will cover the cost of tuition for the online course and, where appropriate, the academic costs of the stay in Mondragon (please note that the scholarship does not cover expenses related to travel, accommodation or food).

In awarding the scholarships, the following will be assessed:

The applicant’s active participation in social and solidarity economy entities will be positively valued.
Situations of economic vulnerability will be taken into account.
The applicant’s link with UNESCO Chairs or entities that are part of a UNESCO Chair program will be positively valued.

Applicants must submit the following documents:

A cover letter explaining the applicant’s reasons for taking the course.
Documentation confirming the applicant’s situation of economic vulnerability, if such a situation exists.

Scholarship applicants must submit the required documents before January 10, 2026, to eescandon@mondragon.edu

UNESCO scholarship decisions will be announced on January 15, 2026.

FUNDAE benefits

Students from Spain are eligible for FUNDAE benefits.

Price

Online course: €450

Study-tour: €1,000

Travel to/from Mondragon, accomodations and morning/evening meals: These are expenses will be the participant's responsibility, over and above the price of the course and study-tour.
Daytime study-tour activities, midday meals and travel to/from these: These included in the price of the study-tour. The meeting point for departures/arrivals will be Mondragon.

Arrasate-Mondragón is located the province of Gipuzkoa, close the border with the provinces of Bizkaia and Araba, in the heart of Euskadi. It is located 39 km from Vitoria-Gasteiz, 78 km from Donostia-San Sebastián and 48 km from Bilbao.

Organization

The course is organized by the LANKI Institute of Cooperative Research of Mondragon Unibertsitatea, a research and development unit of a dozen people created in 2001 that specializes in:

Research on cooperative enterprise, with a focus on the Mondragon Cooperative Experience.
Innovation and development of cooperative enterprise education. Production of teaching/learning materials, design and implementation of cooperative training programs.
Knowledge transfer and support for the development of cooperative socio-business projects.

This course is included among the activities of the UNESCO Chair in Social and Solidarity Economy of which Mondragon Unibertsitatea is a part.