Because of its status as a semi-private virtual university, UOC is not included in many evaluations. However, as is described in the paragraphs dealing with teaching and learning, UOC was quite successful in the rankings it did enter into. In 2004, it received a certification with the Gold Seal of European Excellence from the European Foundation on Quality Management (EFQM) in recognition of its governance model.
Overall, the UOC has been extensively celebrated on all levels as a modern education institution.

Economic Autonomy
As explained before, UOC is a semi-private enterprise and therefore it depends on the instructions and leads it receives from its board, while also having considerable freedom to develop its own strategy and practices and markets. UOC’s relative autonomy results from two conditions: on the one hand, most stakeholders are no experts in internet technology and hence the possibilities of an internet based university are hard to judge resulting in a post-hoc controlling functionality rather than a steering function of the board. Even more fundamental is the overall innovative mission of the institutional model, which persists at being recognized as an experiment and ‘testing ground.’ Once fully realized, this platform will give UOC considerable leeway to explore and experiment with new possibilities [i].

Website
The UOC was considered in the university ranking of university websites conducted by InternetLab (Webometrics, 2006). There it received the 41st rank of 100 institutions evaluated in Spain and the 1007th place on the global ranking. According to this ranking, UOC provides extensive scholarly and rich media material. Ultimately, its relatively low global ranking suggests that usability and other factors have been assessed more negatively. The website offers good information for interested students (marketing material) and news about UOC’s activities. Also, some more in depth information about the university’s structure is presented, but strategic documents are published only retrospectively in the form of the Annual Reports.

3.4.8.1. Teaching and Learning
Especially in the years between 1997 and 2001, UOC received several prizes for its innovative institutionalization of the e-learning model. In 1997 it received the Bangemann Challenge Prize of the European Commission due to its innovative use of the Internet for distance education. In 2000, UOC’s model and practice platform were recognized internationally through the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) prize, and the Digital Opportunity Award. In 2001, UOC reached the preliminary climax of its reputational development; the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) selected UOC for the Award of Excellence for the World’s Best Virtual and Distance Education University. It has to be noted here that, as has been described in the section on UOC’s culture, the learning and social opportunities offered by UOC are perceived and exploited very heterogeneously. In fact the EUA expert review reports students “having the impression of being in the ‘third division’” of academic institutions; it states further that students are aware that their “degrees are not well recognized” (EUA, 2007). It depends primarily on the mindset of the student (and to a lesser degree on the motivational skills of the tutor) what quality the learning experience has cumulatively. In fact UOC needs a knowledge entrepreneurial mindset to identify, evaluate and realize the opportunities to learn. UOC’s continuously high student satisfaction ratings imply that it is offering what the students want – on the one hand interesting learning opportunities, and for the one’s who are only interested in the certificate, a defined process to reach the degree.

3.4.8.2. Research Results
The UOC was originally thought of as a pure teaching university and it added research capacities around 2000 when the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) was founded. Before that, in the first five years, only a few individual research efforts and limited participation in European Union projects took place. Since the inauguration of the IN3, UOC has developed a considerable research infrastructure. In 2006, efforts have been systematized through the recognition of 30 thematic research groups each run by at least one senior UOC researcher, and supervised by a member of the scientific board. The scientific board is a group of ‘high calibre’ researchers from around the world who serve as consultants and figure heads, delivering cutting edge practice, topics and credibility (see more detailed elaboration in the Unique strange attractor section).

Table 3.4.3 give a good overview of UOC’s scientific production in 2006-mid 2007.

When reviewing table 3.4.2, which outlines the production of UOC’s thirteen research fields, the following observations can be made: Under the new leadership team UOC has increased its research lines to now 13 different themes. The most active discipline, according to the data presented in table 3.4.2, is in Law and ICT, closely followed by Communities and Activism as well as Digital Culture. With slight distance New Economy as well as Computer Science and Networking Technologies scholars can be considered core contributors to UOC’s research production. As mentioned in 2006 a number of strategic research programs have been setup (the last four in the table). These small research teams were still in the incubation phase and are expected to start to produce publications etc. in the months to come. During the same period as presented in the table seven PhD thesis where defended and 39 in supervision. Hence the PhD program is beginning to deliver results and it can be expected that UOC’s research potential will increase over the years with more and more of its constituents holding a doctorate.

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[i] Presumably following the logic that in case of success these can be applied to other Catalan institutions

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