9/15/21 · Institutional

The UOC starts the academic year with new customizable training programmes and a new classroom for its students

The open master's programmes have been created to provide skills needed in people's lives and workplaces, fostering students' ability to adapt with learning pathways that combine knowledge from various disciplines

The new student classroom for profession-focused courses is based on Canvas, a learning environment that facilitates collaboration in the classroom and streamlines the introduction of innovative processes
Photo: UOC

Photo: UOC

The 2021/2022 academic year brings with it new features. This September, students starting new profession-focused courses will do so in a new powerful and flexible classroom that offers a whole host of improvements, including more efficient use of mobile devices. Additionally, this year sees the launch of the open master's programmes, an adaptable and customizable system that allows students to choose courses, specializations and postgraduate programmes amounting to a total of 48 credits from a specific portfolio. They then complete a master's degree final project for 12 ECTS credits to earn their UOC open master's degree. 

"The UOC is a pioneer in the creation of learning programmes designed to provide the skills people need in life and at work. What students are demanding is personalized training, support and relevance. All this is provided by the open master's programmes," which start this academic year, explained Àngels Fitó, the Vice President for Competitiveness and Employability. These new programmes also meet organizations' needs for specialized, up-to-date, hybrid training to produce multi-skilled, adaptable employees.

The complex and ever-changing market requires ongoing training processes, but as Fitó stated, "adapting to emerging needs, which often span various disciplines, does not mean starting from scratch, but rather complementing what is already there" and understanding that "the training that optimizes the employability of each person is unique, making it necessary to offer the option of constructing personalized pathways in line with a market that is increasingly asking for more versatile and hybrid profiles."

Extensive range

Enrolment starts this September. Students can choose from 39 courses, 129 specializations and 52 postgraduate programmes from the open master's programme portfolio to make up a total of 48 ECTS credits. They can then opt to complete a master's degree final project for 12 ECTS credits to earn their Open Master's Degree from the UOC. Students who have already passed one of the programmes that form part of the open master's programme portfolio can take advantage of the opportunity to complete their training by creating their own pathway. The 60 ECTS credits must be completed within a maximum period of five years and at least 24 of them must belong to one of the following four faculties: Economics and Business, Law and Political Science, Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications, and Information and Communication Sciences. This master's degree does not impose any admission requirements: students who do not have any previous university qualifications receive a university extension certificate.

This is an exciting format, given that it provides the opportunity to combine different competencies and content, and it is also highly adaptable and customizable because it allows students to focus on what they need in order to quickly apply it to their professional life and build on it, making it a truly ground-breaking educational experience. It is responsive and flexible, aims to build specific skills, is proactive and students receive expert guidance.

New classroom

This year's intake on the profession-focused courses will study in a new classroom in the Canvas platform. The classroom, which is in line with the UOC's image and is easy to use, features a number of functionalities that the current classrooms have not fully incorporated. It streamlines feedback, facilitates the incorporation of videos and multimedia material and allows for more efficient use to be made of mobile devices to solve matters related to the learning process and to view practically everything that is happening. It also improves students' interactions with both the teaching staff and their classmates.

Inaugural lecture

On 28 October, Francesca Bria, an expert consultant in information technology and digitization policies, will give the inaugural lecture of the new academic year. Bria, who studied Social Sciences and Economics before earning a PhD from Imperial College, served as Barcelona City Council's Technology and Digital Innovation Commissioner from 2017 to 2019.

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