The UOC

To become consolidated as one of the leading universities for quality online education with a global reach and endowed with an optimal structure for giving the best possible service to students, periodically assessing and publishing their level of satisfaction. The UOC's methodology seeks to make the learning processes as easy as possible, constantly innovating for further improvement.

The Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya was created on 6 October 1994 as an initiative of the Government of Catalonia to provide lifelong learning through the use of information technologies and a personalized educational model.

The UOC is a university that renders a public service but is organized in accordance with private management principles. The UOC is part of the Catalan and Spanish public university system. The qualifications it offers are official and are endorsed by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU Catalunya) and the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain (ANECA), which assure rigour and compliance with the standards demanded by the European university system.

• Further information

The UOC is a fully recognized Catalan university. It is constantly assessed by AQU Catalunya (the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency), the Catalan higher education system's leading quality assessment and advocacy body. AQU Catalunya is a full member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

The virtual programme involves assessment of virtual teaching and institutions, taking as its model the education assessment system used until now by AQU Catalunya, adapted to the specific features of this type of learning. The UOC is also member of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) [add link to text] and its programmes are adapted to the criteria introduced by the Bologna Declaration.

• The UOC's entry in the Universities, Centres and Qualifications Register (RUCT) held by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport
• registration of the UOC's qualifications in the RUCT held by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport

Considering all the programmes, there are 70,274 students.*

The following numbers of people work at the UOC:*

• 429 faculty members
• 4,295 course instructors and tutors
• 629 administrative staff members

*Data corresponding to the 2017/2018 academic year 

Yes. The UOC's graduate community, Alumni, was created in 2008. UOC Alumni seeks to provide an interface between graduates and university, with the goal of becoming an effective platform to enable former students to contact other people they studied with, professional colleagues, teachers and faculties. Furthermore, the UOC's graduate community facilitates access to lifelong learning and professional upgrades.

• Get to know UOC Alumni

The UOC is an independent institution. However, we are involved in many cooperation projects around the world with other institutions, universities, companies, international organizations and intergovernmental agencies, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), UNESCO, the UNDP, the UNWTO, WHO and the United Nations.

• Find out more about the UOC's international activity

According to Wikipedia, the term knowledge society refers to any society where knowledge is the main production resource, instead of capital or labour. A knowledge society "generates, shares and makes available to all members of the society knowledge that may be used to improve the human condition".