Agreement with the Universitat d'Andorra to foster European mobility of students expanded

On Thursday, the President of the UdA, Miquel Nicolau, and the President of the UOC, Josep A. Planell, signed two new addenda to the Framework Partnership Agreement between universities with the aim of expanding the mobility, double degrees and subject exchange programmes. To date, the cooperation between the two institutions allowed their students to obtain the official Andorran bachelor's degree through the UdA (bàtxelor) by passing 180 credits, and to obtain the official Spanish bachelor's degree through the UOC (grau) by passing 60 additional credits. The new agreements extend this possibility to second cycle courses (master's degrees), and also allow the offer of optional subjects to be expanded.

This way, the UdA and the UOC are reaffirming the will to aid their students' mobility to the utmost within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), establishing procedures that enable the respective students to obtain the corresponding official degrees in Andorra and Spain (after having first met the admission requirements).

Andorra and Spain have followed different mechanisms for adapting to the EHEA. The first university cycles in Andorra (bàtxelors) are degrees with 180 European credits, which represent a dedication by the student of three years' full-time study, while in Spain the first university cycles (graus) are course plans of 240 European credits, which represent a dedication by the student of four years' full-time study. As regards the second cycles, in both countries they are called master's degrees and represent a total dedication (between the first and the second cycle) of 300 credits (5 years' full-time study), such that the Spanish master's degrees are 60 European credits (one year) and the Andorran master's degrees are 120 European credits (two years).

For the degrees that they offer jointly, the UdA and the UOC define specific pathways to permit double degrees for student who meet the academic legislation of each country. Consequently, students who pass the course programme satisfactorily will be awarded an official master's degree from Andorra, through the UdA, and an official master's degree from Spain, through the UOC.


Over 800 agreements with universities around the world

Internationalization is one of the UOC's main strategic pillars, and it has signed over 800 agreements with universities, educational institutions and businesses all around the world. Since April 2013, when the new president, Josep A. Planell, took on the role, 72 new international agreements have been signed or are under negotiation: 42 in Latin America, 7 in Africa, 6 in the USA, 5 in Asia, 4 in Europe, 1 in Australia and 1 in Andorra.