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.
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.
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."
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.