Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) began its activities in the academic year 1995/1996, with 200 students on officially recognized courses in Educational Psychology and Business Studies in Catalan. In the intervening years, the UOC has grown and 200,000 people now form part of the UOC’s university community. Over these years, the University has increased and diversified its course offering, adding studies in Spanish and English. It has improved its educational methodology, creating a student-centred learning model. It has progressively expanded through Catalonia and Spain with a wide network of centres and information points, and has made a leap into the international market, consolidating its Mexican offices as the base for expansion into Latin America. It has also opened two research centres specializing in the information and knowledge society, and in e-learning, becoming an international benchmark in these fields.