Get to know the UOC

IMS Learning Impact Awards

The UOC's My Way project, which allows for the custom transformation of content into different formats, won a Gold Award at the Learning Impact Awards 2008, organised by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. The Learning Impact Awards are in recognition of the learning-support technology with the greatest impact. The judges assess and reward services and products that provide an important technological stimulus to education. These awards are given as part of an annual congress that brings together the sector's leaders from around the world and where factors to improve quality and access to education are presented and debated.

IGC award for Digital Innovation

The Myway project, developed by professionals from the UOC, won the 2006 IGC award for Digital Innovation in the category of projects by universities and institutions, granted by the Internet Global Congress.

Myway is a made-to-measure content transformation system, which allows us to bring knowledge closer to people. 

The IGC awards for Digital Innovation have as their objective the recognition and rewarding of talent and progress of both companies and professionals or university students who present innovative technology-based projects in the field of information and communication technologies, specifically in the digital area. 

SUN Centre of Excellence

The UOC was named a Centre of Excellence in 2003 as part of the Sun Microsystems Global Education and Research Programme. The UOC was one of five universities to receive the distinction in 2003 in recognition of their leadership in the computing and technical research arenas, and specifically in the creation of technological environments for promoting innovation in e-learning. The UOC was Europe's first Centre of Excellence for E-learning, and one of the first 15 in the world.

As a member of this community of experts, the UOC has played a leading role in setting up the Global Education Learning Community's Curriki network, the purpose of which is to promote open access to knowledge and educational resources. Francesc Noguera, the University's Deputy Manager for Information Technologies, is currently a member of the network's advisory board.

ICDE Prize of Excellence 2001

The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), which represents distance education institutions from more than 140 countries around the world, awarded the UOC the ICDE Prize of Excellence 2001 in recognition of its status as the world's leading online and distance university.

The ICDE recognised the UOC as "a pioneering initiative in the world of distance education which proposes a new educational model within the framework of university education. It is an initiative for the future, aimed at offering maximum levels of teaching quality by applying innovative educational models and using interactive multimedia technology." The ICDE also stressed "the high level of quality of the educational and research programmes, above all in the field of IT and the knowledge society." Additionally, the institution recognised that the UOC "bases its educational system on the concept of the Virtual Campus, which, thanks to computers and remote communication networks, allows it to overcome the barriers of space and time and to offer a personalised, interactive service for all the students, teaching staff and management personnel who make up the university community."

WITSA Award for the world's best digital opportunity 2000

The World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), which brings together information technology and service business consortia from some forty countries around the world, awarded the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) the Digital Opportunity Award for the best digital initiative.

WITSA, an international body that brings together information and communication industry and business associations from more than forty countries from around the world, has, for the first time, awarded prizes for the world's best projects in three categories (public sector, private sector and digital opportunity) and in terms of three large geographical areas in which it has divided the world. The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) was proposed by the Spanish Association of Information Technology Businesses (SEDISI), the Spanish member of WITSA. The WITSA awards are handed out at the World Congress on IT, the world's most important conference on information technology and technological services, which is held every two years.

Bangemann Challenge Award for the best European distance education initiative 1997

The UOC received the European Union's Bangemann Challenge Award 1997 for the best European distance education initiative at a prize-giving ceremony held in Stockholm, Sweden.

The EU awarded the UOC the prize for Europe's most advanced distance education remote technology project. The Bangemann Challenge, organised by the city of Stockholm, under the auspices of the European Union, aims to reward Europe's leading ICT projects. The UOC was awarded the prize in the distance education section, in which it was selected from among a total of 15 entrants. The panel awarding the prizes was made up of representatives from the European Commission, the academic and industrial arenas and the information technology sector.