ICDE Prize of Excellence 2001
The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), which brings together distance education institutions from more than a hundred and forty countries around the world, awarded the UOC its ICDE Prize of Excellence 2001, in recognition of the university's being the world's leading online and distance university.
The ICDE recognised the UOC as "a pioneering initiative in the world of distance education that 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 highlighted "the high level of quality of the educational and research programmes, above all in the field of IT and the knowledge society." Likewise, 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 and interactive service for all the members of the university community: students, teaching staff and management personnel."