The UOC's strategy is in line with UNESCO's road map for the coming years

Educating global citizens to address the complexity of today's societies, promoting open and shared knowledge and cross-disciplinary research, and ensuring the social commitment and ethical responsibility of higher education institutions are the three missions for rethinking higher education that UNESCO has highlighted in its roadmap for 2030. The proposal, presented at the closing session of the World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022) which took place in Barcelona from 18 to 20 May, is based on six principles: inclusion, equity and pluralism; academic freedom; critical thinking and creativity; integrity and ethics; sustainability and social responsibility, and cooperation for excellence.

"Our commitment to transforming the UOC into a global university with a greater social impact is entirely consistent with the vision presented by UNESCO," said Pastora Martínez Samper, the Vice President for Globalization and Cooperation. The UOC's 2017-2020 strategic plan already included the need to provide students with training in global competencies (leveraging the advantages of the university's online model), the importance of having an open knowledge plan, and the priority of improving the university's social engagement, with the 2030 Agenda as a framework for action. This commitment by the UOC was reaffirmed in the current Strategic Plan for 2022-2025.

A world higher education week for a global UOC

Numerous universities and institutions from all over the world gathered in Barcelona for WHEC2022, and many of them took the opportunity to meet the UOC team to explore opportunities for collaboration, or to consolidate existing links.

During the event, the UOC was visited by the University of Valle and the University of Quindío (Colombia), the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), the Universidad del Pacífico (Peru) and the Technological University of Uruguay. "Many universities in Latin America think of the UOC as a benchmark, and they want to work with us. They approach us to find out more about our online model and the pedagogical innovation that we engage in, and to ask us to support them in their process of digital transformation," pointed out Gemma Xarles Jubany, the director of the UOC's Globalization and Cooperation department.

The UOC was also very active at various forums, bilateral meetings and events, including the Ibero-American - European Union Meeting organized by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the University of Barcelona; the Conference on "Universities and lifelong learning, organized by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), the Spanish Education Internationalization Service (SEPIE) and the University of Barcelona; the debate on Higher Education and SDG: interregional perspectives, organized by Obreal, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Enlaces group and the Association of African Universities (AAU); and the meeting with the higher education secretaries of the governments of Argentina and Chile organized by the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) and the Obreal network.

Josep A. Planell, the President of the UOC, participated in the Ibero-American meeting mentioned above, where he explained the key factors in the digital transformation of universities; Marta Aymerich, the Vice President for Strategic Planning and Research, spoke at the seminar entitled "Dialogues on the Horizon (Scanning) Four-stranded dialogues"; Pastora Martínez Samper, the Vice President for Globalization and Cooperation, was invited as a front row guest to the session on "Navigating digital disruption in higher education: Insights for the journey", organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022), and Josep Maria Duart, Professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at the UOC spoke in the round table discussion on the "Role of Open Universities in Transforming Higher Education" at WHEC 2022. Finally, Rachel Palmen, the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) GenTIC group researcher also contributed to the conference, by participating in the video presentation entitled "Contributions of gender equality plans and programmes at Latin American universities for the future of higher education", presented by the FLACSO Argentina UNESCO Regional Chair in Women, Science and Technology in Latin America.

The UOC also contributed to the contents of WHEC 2022 with a video on the digital transformation of education, the participation of Pastora Martínez Samper, the Vice President for Globalization and Cooperation, in the video by the Ministry of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia, and a poster on the university’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education.