The European Quality Assurance Network for Informatics Education (EQANIE) has awarded five international Euro-Inf accreditations to the UOC in recognition of the work of its Computing, Multimedia and Telecommunication Studies.
The Computing, Multimedia and Telecommunication Studies (EIMT) of UOC have received an important international recognition for the quality of its teaching and research. Five core ICT programmes offered by the UOC have been accredited with a Euro-Inf label in this first phase: Bachelor in Multimedia, Bachelor in Computing Engineering, Bachelor in Telecommunication Engineering, Master in Computing Engineering and Master in Telecommunication Engineering.
Rafael Macau, director of the EIMT, celebrated the award saying: “I am very proud that our programmes are the first in Spain to receive this kind of accreditation, which means we can help and guide those other universities that have already asked us for support along this line.” Euro-Inf is the only accreditation in the world specializing in the accreditation of university programmes in the field of ICT. It is already fairly widespread in Germany and Scandinavia. With regard to Spain, some weeks ago EQANIE (www.equanie.org) and the Spanish quality agency ANECA signed an agreement whereby ANECA formally recognizes Euro-Inf accreditations. The UOC forged ahead before this agreement, becoming the first Spanish university to receive such accreditation for some of its ICT programmes. Almost all of the EIMT teaching, research and management staff took part in the Euro-Inf project, with support and assistance from the UOC’s Quality and Planning department and a select group of students and collaborating teaching staff from the programmes in question.
The team of auditors put together by EQANIE was made up of five professionals from the corresponding fields of ICT (multimedia, computing and telecommunications) and from five different countries (France, Germany, Spain, UK and Uruguay) and included three full professors with long and renowned teaching and research careers. The specific nature of distance education and e-learning, among other factors, led to the inclusion in the assessment team of the dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology at the UK’s Open University.
UOC is pleased to be able to celebrate these accreditations, which coincide with the 15th anniversary of the EIMT, and the university continues to work to improve and consolidate its position as an international referent for quality.
