Barcelona Online | Education

Open University of Catalonia
UOC
The UOC – Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, or Open University of Catalonia – is one of Europe’s leading distance or e-learning centres ("the world's best virtual university", it in fact claims). It offers full degree courses in such things as Law and Business Administration as well as degree and other courses in new technology.

Also available on the site is a wide range of articles on e-learning, e-business and other subjects, although generally only the abstracts are available in English.

• We liked: The experience of studying there, with collaborative learning being a big thing with the UOC
•Not so hot: The one thing on the UOC campus that is below par is their chatroom (right, you want us to study, but what all students really want to do is chat, isn't it?)
•Languages: Site in English, Spanish, Catalan. Studies only in Spanish and Catalan

Estudiar a Catalunya
Universities in Barcelona and Catalonia
The Generalitat's Ministry of Universities, Research and Information Society (DURSI) has an excellent site for anyone considering studying at a Catalan university, whether for a first or a post-graduate degree.
The site includes information on the Universities themselves, the courses they offer (with a search engine), scholarships, the Catalan education system and general information on living in Catalonia

•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan; French
•We liked: An excellent site all round
•Not so hot: Some of the universities themselves could do with following this example of providing information in English

The future of education?
E-learning portal
Not really a Barcelona site at all, this one. It's a new e-learning portal backed by the European Commission, with stacks of resources, links, etc on what the experts say is the future of education.

Why did we include it here? Well, you see, apart from being an excellent site, it's produced by a Barcelona-based firm, PAU Education (www.paueducation.com) and here in Barcelona, the centre of e-learning in Europe. Ahem…! Well, you see, here in Barcelona we have a not-always-healthy conceit that we're the bee's knees at everything, capital of the world, etc. Oh, never mind!

Seriously, though, if you're interested in e-learning, it's a great site.

•We liked: The staggering amount of information on a wide variety of related topics. Liked that neat, clean design, too
•Not so hot: What happened to the link to the site's designers? Bet those meanies in the EU wouldn't let you put a link there!
•Languages: English… and a whole bunch of other EU languages. 12, aren't there? What do you mean, you can't name them!


DURSI
University courses Barcelona
A Generalitat (the autonomous government) site aimed at helping secondary school pupils make the right choice over what to study at university (a recent report in Metro claimed that 72% of the university population of Spain chose the wrong degree). Detailed information on the 120 different degrees you can take in Catalonia. Wow! We’re impressed.

• We liked: The navigation - by what you've studied at school, at what sort of school, by subject name...
•Not so hot: Well it wasn't in English - but it is now. Great!
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

back to top