International students begin the executive master at the UOC and EADA Business School

The course has begun at the EADA Collbató residential campus, where students will spend one week. The profile of these executive managers enrolled on the joint course offering from the UOC and EADA Business School is 34 years old and from outside Spain (65%). Of these international students, the majority are from Colombia, followed by Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras. All of them are training in the fields of marketing, finance, human resources and operations.

The two institutions bring their expertise to the table in two complementary spheres: knowledge learning through an online education platform and the development of management skills and networking in a face-to-face environment, which is known as blended learning or hybrid learning.

Blended learning, a trend on the rise

According to the latest figures registered in Spain (Fundación Tripartita – Ministry of Employment and Social Security), on-site learning in companies has steadily lost a lot of ground – going from 80.2% in 2004 to 49.2% in 2014 – to blended learning formulas. In the international sphere, the latest See the future 2014 study, promoted by the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development), shows that three-quarters of the businesses consulted believe that "hybrid learning offers the best focus for professional development. The possibilities of technology, added to the benefits of leaving the work place and meeting participants who have different viewpoints on similar problems, can improve the learning experience".

In the United States, nearly 32% of the businesses consulted used the hybrid formula to train their workers and managers last year (2015 Training Industry Report).

New UOC-EADA blended master's degrees

To this end, the UOC and EADA have created an offering of programmes based on a blended model that combines online learning with on-site work. The offering includes four blended executive master's degrees:

• Executive Master in Marketing Management
• Executive Master in Economic and Financial Management
• Executive Master in Operations and Supply Chain Management
• Executive Master in Human Resources Management

The EADA-UOC Executive Master programmes are aimed at highly exacting professionals who are seeking to specialize in a specific business field. The name executive master implies an extremely practical and integrating orientation, both in terms of knowledge and of skills connected with business management. Their aim is to foster the innovative profile of the participants in each of the areas of their responsibility, besides an in-depth exploration of the skills needed to manage constantly changing environments successfully.

All the programmes follow the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education, which are aimed at generating a sustainable value for organizations and society based on responsible management and leadership processes.

Programmes with an international vocation

The possibilities afforded by online learning and the global dimension of the two institutions imbue the agreement with a clear international vocation that will be rolled out in two phases: an initial one with programmes in Spanish aimed at students in Latin America, with particular emphasis on Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Central America; and a second one in English, aimed at the rest of the world.

Research

Both institutions are committed to developing lines of research in the field of business sciences.

These programmes are the result of an agreement signed in the previous academic year by the president of the UOC, Josep A. Planell, and the president of the EADA Private University Foundation, David Parcerisas. The cooperation framework follows three fundamental action lines: the development of a joint education offering, their projection in the international sphere, and research and the transfer of knowledge to society.

EADA Business School

It was considered to be the 24th best business school in Europe in 2015, according to the recognized classification of the Financial Times, and it has been awarded key academic accreditations: EQUIS, awarded by the EFMD, and AMBA, which recognizes the quality of MBA programmes.