General data

Created in 1995, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is an innovative web-centric virtual organisation which has relied on the intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) from the very beginning. The UOC's main goal is that every person satisfies their training needs, making their personal effort as profitable as possible, regardless of where they are and optimising the time they have. The UOC develops the Virtual Campus as a network community where, by using information and communication technologies, limitations of space and time (coincidence in a certain place and time) are overcome. It also uses an educational methodology based on the complete personalisation and guidance of the student. Students, lecturers and managers interact and cooperate in that network community to create, structure, share and disseminate knowledge.

The Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) is the UOC’s interdisciplinary research centre. The IN3 is defined as an international and interdisciplinary centre of study, research and development, focused on the study of ICT developments (especially the Internet), the adoption and dissemination of personal and organisational uses of the ICT, the effects on persons, organisations and society, and economical, social and political implications. The IN3 has attracted prestigious researchers worldwide, such as Prof. Manuel Castells and Prof. Tony Bates, among others. Due to its international and cooperative vocation, the UOC has already established important networks of collaborators and international projects, including leading several projects in the V and VI Framework Programme. The total R&D expenditure of the UOC reaches 9,540,638 € and the number of R&D personnel is 129 people.

Main areas of activity

• E-learning
• Network society
• E-law and e-government
• Networking technologies
• Knowledge management
• Knowledge economy
• Network companies,
• E-health
• E-cultures

Note that the Open Standards and Free Software (which are the object of this proposal) are included in the “Networking technologies” area.

Brief description of activities in the field of Open Standards & Free Software

The UOC's activity in the field of Open Standards & Free Software (OS-FS) has been very intensive in the last few years. As early as in 1997, the UOC decided to use the GNU/Linux platform in the practical activities of the networking and operating systems subjects in the Computer Science official programmes and, thus, started distributing FS to their students. The use of Free Software for academic purposes has extended to many other areas, including the following applications: GCC/Dev-C++ (programming), MySQL and TOAD (databases), GnuPG (security), Eclipse (software engineering), Apache and Tomcat (computer networks and e-commerce) and OpenOffice (document exchange). In addition, the UOC was the first university to offer a Master Programme in Free Software (MPFS) in Europe, which has been recently adapted to the European Higher Education Space (EHES). Since November 2003, more than 250 students have enrolled this Master Programme.

Other activities in the OS-FS field can be reported, such as the adaptation of the Virtual Campus, the web portal of the UOC, the virtual library, and other services to free browsers (e.g. Mozilla), the usage of standard and multi-platform formats (such as PDF, HTML, RTF, XML or SCORM) for document exchange and the development of a metadistribution of GNU/Linux adapted to the UOC's students. Most recently, the UOC is involved in a joint project with more than 10 universities in the Catalan environment to develop a new version of the Virtual Campus which will be released under the GPL license. This project is partially funded by the Ministry of Universities, Research and Information Society of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan autonomous government).

International Networks and Collaborations

In order to forge new ground in the field of open and distance education, the UOC is always interested in establishing new collaborative relationships with universities, institutions and companies from all over the world. The UOC also holds the UNESCO chair in e-learning, which is a key instrument in the university’s international promotion strategy. The UOC has agreements with more than 30 American universities. It is worth highlighting some of the most important institutions with which the UOC has signed international cooperation agreements: the International Council for Distance Education, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, the World Health Organisation, the Organization of American State and the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities.

In addition, the UOC takes part in several international projects or networks. Here is a list of several relevant international projects and networks led or participated by the UOC in the past 3 years:

• Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence (Kaleidoscope), 6th Framework Programme on Research, Technological Development and Demonstration
• Network of Excellence in Cryptology (ECRYPT), Information Society Technologies Programme (IST)
• Roadmap to Communicating Knowledge Essential for the Industrial Environment (ROCKET), Information Society Technologies Programme (IST)
• Learning Grid of Excellence Working Group (LeGE-WG), roadmap, Information Society Technologies Programme (IST)
• Costing Tool for European educational multimedia Co-production (COST€R), SOCRATES
• Training Information Technologies (TRAIN SEE), Information Society Technologies Programme (IST)
• Automatic Control in a Hidden Technology (ADACIE), Information Society Technologies Programme (IST)
• IP-based Networks, Services and TermINals for Converging system (INSTINCT), Information Society Technologies Programme

Indicators of Quality and Reputation

The UOC has a top quality team of professionals, its main asset, which forms part of an integrated and enterprising organisation focused on excellence and which has the quality of student support and effectiveness as two of its mainstays. This structure includes business initiatives, units for innovation and transfer, and institutes.

The innovation efforts made by the UOC were rewarded in 1997 with the Bangemann Challenge Prize of the European Commission for the best telematic initiative in distance education. Later on, the UOC was awarded the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) prize, the Digital Opportunity Award 2000, the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Award of Excellence for the world’s best virtual and distance education university 2001 and, most recently, the Organization of America States 2004 Prize for Educational Quality. Last, but not least, in December 2004, the UOC received the Gold Standard for European Excellence from the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), which comes in recognition of the quality of the university's management model.