Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
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Mission / Vision
The fundamental basis of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya is being an avant-garde technological University, highly innovative in its learning model and a referent for both academic and research quality.
Goals
The UOC is a university born from the knowledge society to provide people with lifelong learning and education. The prime objective of the UOC is to enable people to achieve their learning needs with maximum access to knowledge. To this end, the University employs the intensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and offers an educational model based on the personalization and constant accompaniment of the student, beyond the limitations of time and space.
The aim of the UOC is to facilitate the education of people and contribute to their progress and to that of society by promoting specialized research on the knowledge society and by establishing alliances with other universities and institutions around the world with shared goals and values in order to build a global space of knowledge.
Main activities
Innovative Teaching
The UOC shapes the offer of programs with the aim of satisfying the educational needs of individuals. Its studies are organized by nine fields of knowledge that gather together the different educational programs and initiatives of the University:
• Information and Communications Sciences
• Health and Environmental Sciences
• Law and Political and Administration Sciences
• Economics and Business
• Humanities
• Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunication
• Languages and Cultures
• Tourism
• Psychology and Educational Sciences
The studies offered by the UOC are designed in coherence with the criteria of the Declaration of Bologna of 1999 for the establishment of a comparable degree system on a European level with the aim of constructing an European Area for Higher Education.
The educational programs offered by the UOC are organized in the following way:
Approved degrees:
• Diplomas / bachelor's degrees / engineering
• PhD on the Information and Knowledge Society
International Postgraduate Institute:
• Official postgraduate programs (official masters)
• Postgraduate programs created by the Institute
• Customized training for institutions and companies
• Open programs
• UOC entrance courses for > 25s
Research on the information society
The UOC focus its research on the study of the interaction of the ICT and the different dimensions of the economy, society and culture. Research at the UOC is one of the main axes of its activity:
• Defines its personality.
• Situates the University in the international context.
Research at the UOC takes place at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), from where support is given to the PhD on the Information and Knowledge Society, the only one that is offered in a completely virtual manner. The IN3 is the instrument from which all research and innovation at the UOC is carried out and from where support is given to professors and researchers in academic and scientific aspects and in areas of administration, monitoring and promotion. The IN3 was created in the year 2000 and has a Scientific Commission presided by professor Manuel Castells, which advices and evaluates the educational activities of the doctorate.
Research at the IN3 is organized mainly in groups and projects related to the following areas:
• Online learning
• Electronic governance
• The new economy
• Virtual communities
• The network society
• Internet and daily life
• Psychology and health network
• Youth and new technologies
• Information and knowledge management
• The new media
• Free software
• Software engineering
• Copyright
• Mathematics network
Creation and dissemination of knowledge
The UOC has as priorities the dissemination of the work of its researchers and the publication of the results of research projects:
• Work documents
• Articles
• Doctoral works
• Papers
The UOC employs different strategies for the dissemination of knowledge:
• Publication on the Internet. The knowledge generated by the UOC is made available to the whole community and to society through digital journals and online thematic channels.
• Editorial activity. The UOC editorial makes a wide range of publications available to the university community and to society.
• Cultural activities in the territory. The territorial centers are service and resource centers of the UOC whose purpose is to bring the University closer to different geographical areas and promote cultural and academic activities.
