UOC research outpacing other universities

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is one of Spain's fastest growing universities in terms of research and innovation. For example, the number of joint publications with businesses has risen faster than anywhere else, increasing by over 26% since 2015. This is one of the indicators used to rate research activity for which the UOC has improved according to the CYD Ranking of some 60 Spanish universities.

Six indicators show improvement

The UOC is the third leading Spanish higher education institution in terms of the increase in the number of international scientific publications, which are up more than 12% in the last four years. Another indicator where the University stands out is the number of scholarly publications by faculty member, where the UOC saw the fourth greatest increase (15%). The UOC currently has a research staff of over 400 people working in one of the 46 research groups linked to the faculties or the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), or in one of its two research centres: the eLearn Center and the eHealth Center.

The report produced by the Conocimiento y Desarrollo (CYD) Foundation also highlighted the more than 30% increase in interdisciplinary publications since 2015, or the over 3% increase in regional publications. The UOC's commitment to the internationalization of its research activity can be seen in the sixth indicator that showed improvement: the more than 18% increase in research staff from outside Spain between 2015 and 2019.

The CYD Ranking

The study aims to bring transparency and a multidimensional perspective to the assessment of Spanish universities' performance. This latest ranking is the sixth and uses data from the period between 2015 and 2019. The study is carried out by the CYD Foundation, which was created in 2002 as an enterprise committed to promoting the role of universities in social and economic development. The aim is to analyse and boost the contribution made by Spanish higher education institutions to development, to foster entrepreneurship in society, and to strengthen the links between the university and business sectors.