The document discusses the opportunities and challenges facing open and distance universities. It summarizes the UOC's efforts to increase access to higher education for diverse groups of students around the world and help other institutions adopt online learning models. While online education has grown during the pandemic and can help universities achieve greater inclusion and cost-efficiency, open universities still face perceptions that online learning is inferior and challenges related to underfunding, for-profit competitors, and regulation of the online education sector. Collaboration between all higher education institutions will be key to overcoming these issues and realizing the potential of open and distance learning to provide education for all.

1. Professor Dr. Josep A. Planell
President
EADTU Annual
Conference 2022
Open and Distance Universities:
the medium is the message

2. Diversity of HE Institutions

3. Known today as the research university, observed especially in the university-business
relationship through applied research and technology transfer.
Depending on the mission
01 The German Humboldtian model
Strongly oriented towards providing professional training mainly required by the State,
to the detriment of the development of research. This model strengthens the relationship
between universities and the State.
02 The French Napoleonic model
Based on the traditional university aspects contained in the medieval universities of Oxford
and Cambridge, the British university model provides the most general training possible
regardless of future professional activity of the graduates, and is different from scientific and
research education.
03 The Anglo-Saxon model

4. Open
University
(UK)
FernUniversität in
Hagen
(Germany)
1969 1970 1972
UNED
(Spain)
1974
Athabasca
University
(Canada)
Universidade
Aberta
(Portugal)
1984 1988
Open Universiteit
(NL)
1992
Hellenic Open
University
(Greece)
1995
UOC
(Spain)
Open University
of Cyprus (OUC)
2002 2005
Universitá Telematica
Internazionale
UNINETUNO
(Italy)
1st online
Online Universities (Virtual Campus based)
Open and Distance Learning Universities
Depending on the methodology

5. Source: “Can the universities of today lead learning for tomorrow? The University of the Future”
Depending on the external context
https://cdn.ey.com/echannel/au/en/industries/government---public-sector/ey-university-of-the-future-2030/EY-university-of-the-future-2030.pdf

6. The great diversity of
higher education
institutions predicts
different futures for
each one of them
Depending on public or
private ownership
Depending on their size,
with hundreds of
students or hundreds of
thousands, with one or
several campuses, at
national or international
level
Depending on the type
of programmes they
offer: undergraduate,
postgraduate or doctoral
Depending on their type
of campus: residential,
urban, virtual
Depending on the fields
in which they specialize
Depending on their
research intensity
Depending on the
university system they
belong to
Depending on the kind
of relationship they
have with their
environment
Depending on their
governance model
J. Gallifa, A. Sangrà (2022) Transformar la Universidad. Ed UOC

7. Change of paradigm
Education in critical
thinking and creation
Fields or disciplines:
Philosophy, Science, Art,
Humanities
High-level professional
training
Professions: engineering,
nursing, business
administration, teaching,
medicine...
Education in ? (perhaps
interdisciplinary skills?)
???? (occupations that do not
exist yet)
Traditional society Industrial society Informational society
To know To know and
To know how to do
Students determine what they
need to know and do

8. "The medium is the message"
Marshall McLuhan
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)

9. Challenges of HEI today

10. Issues that universities must address right away

11. Ensure inclusive and equitable
quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all.
The UN 2030 Agenda > Quality Higher Education as a fundamental right
Academic knowledge and the
technological development are key to make
the 2030 Agenda possible. Global Sustainable Development Report 2019: The Future is
Now – Science for Achieving Sustainable Development (United
Nations, 2019)

12. Promoting teaching
innovation
2020
Pandemic outbreak
Digital transformation within universities
Digitalisation = incorporation of technologies into existing
processes with a twofold objective:
01 More efficient management
procedures
02
The central
position of digital
technologies
becomes
undeniable
Pandemic propels Higher Education to the 21st century

13. The pandemic forces to adopt virtual training methodologies…
Emergency remote teaching vs Quality online teaching

14. Recommendations were
approved in relation to the
evaluation criteria and standards
for the verification, modification,
monitoring and renewal of the
accreditation of official
undergraduate and master's
degrees offered in virtual and
hybrid teaching modalities.
Spain
Official approval of online
assessment in Higher Education
in April 2021
90,000
online tests were
conducted in the
2020/2021
academic year at
the UOC
… and to change Higher Education regulation
Peru
Official recognition of online
learning as a training modality
in HE in August 2020
ON-SITE
Up to 20% (max) of
the credits can be
taught online
BLENDED
Between 21% and 70%
of the credits can be
taught online
ONLINE
Between 70% and 80%
of the credits can be
taught online
Master's and doctoral
degree programs can
be exclusively online
Source “Nuevos parámetros de
SUNEDU para programas
presenciales, semipresenciales
y a distancia”

15. Opportunities for open and
distance universities today

16. Increase in the demand for online education
In the US,
in fall 2020, 75% (11.8 million) of all
undergraduate students were enrolled in at least
one distance education course,
x2 regards to fall 2019
(11.8 million vs. 6 million).
And 44% (7 million) of all undergraduate
students exclusively took distance education
courses, which represents x3 in 2020
compared to 2019 (7 million vs. 2.4 million).
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
In the EU,
in 2021, 27% of people aged 16 to
74 reported that they did an online
course, a 4% increase in
regards to 2020.
Compared with 2019 before the
pandemic, the share of people
doing online courses
increased in almost all
Member States.
Source: Interest in online education
grows in the EU; Eurostat
In Australia,
in fall 2017, 42% of future
students preferred online
learning, versus the 22% of
students who were actually
receiving the majority of their
degree online.
Source: “Can the universities of
today lead learning for tomorrow?
The University of the Future”
01

17. 02 Broaden access to Higher Education
68% of UOC students are older than
25. They have family obligations
and a career they want to make
compatible with their studies.
People aged
over 25
#refugeeuniversity
7 scholarship programmes open
since 2017 with over 200 grantees,
reaching refugee camps in Greece, the
Sahara, several European countries,
including Spain.
Groups of
migrants or
refugees
Over 6,600 of UOC students live abroad
Countries where the most UOC students live:
Ecuador, Colombia, Germany, Andorra and the
United Kingdom
People who change
their place of
residence
1,944 people certified with disability
levels of 33% or above were studying at
the UOC in the 2020-21 academic year.
UOC students account for 43% of all
university students with a certified
disability in Catalonia.
People with
disabilities
64% of the UOC students living in
Catalonia in small rural towns (under
10,000 people) are women.
Women in rural
areas
making Life
Long
Learning a
reality
The UOC’s case: Making Lifelong Learning a reality

18. 03 Contribute to the capacity building of universities and
educational systems
The UOC’s case: Helping to transform HE around the world
Transfer of the model
to governments and
institutions
Argentina, Central America,
Colombia, Ecuador, Jordan,
Mexico, Peru, Chile
Virtual mobilities
2,000
Latin American students have
benefited from this mobility
programme since 2016
Grant programme
More than 60grants have been
awarded for continuing education
courses on e-learning
In partnership with SENESCYT,
SEGIB, OAS and ICETEX

19. 04 Improve teaching and learning
The UOC’s case:
Promoting global competences
Students living in 141
countries on 5 continents
A diverse and global
student community at
the centre of the
learning process
and technological developments
GRAF:
competency assessment tool
Niu:
content aggregator
FOLIO:
community empowerment
and skill-building model

20. Challenges for open and
distance universities today

21. A remedial perception
01
Online learning provides a framework for flexible and highly
customisable learning models. It is therefore an ideal
approach for delivering the lifelong learning that will be
crucial in adapting to a changing world.
However, it is still perceived as complementary
to traditional learning modalities by the rest of
agents within the system: face-to-face universities
and policy makers.

22. Quality online training can provide
access to a larger number of students
without proportionally increasing the
cost, but it also requires funding.
The Iron Triangle
COST
Underfunding
02

23. For-profit initiatives
03

24. Regulation
04
Source:https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2021/03/28/companias/1616959354_757808.html
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/02/up-to-50-of-university-
students-unhappy-with-online-learning-regulator-finds
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-58600875
Source: https://start.lesechos.fr/apprendre/mooc-formations/pour-ou-contre-generaliser-luniversite-100-en-ligne-1209188
Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2020/06/10/online-learning-not-future-higher-education-opinion

25. Conclusions

26. Open and distance universities can be universities for all.
Collaboration is key. We need to work together to get one step
ahead than higher education institutions with a public mandate.
It is important that the commitment towards a high quality
university be supported by an adequate funding and an
enabling regulatory framework.

27. “We have to make the
classroom count.
Universities have to become a
place of action, creation and
impact”
Sanjay Sarma, Professor of Mechanical
Engineering and Vice President for Open
Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT)
UOC inaugural lecture,
academic year 2020-2021
(min 9.40 – 29.45)

28. UOC.universitat
@UOCuniversity
@uocuniversitat
uoc.edu
Thank you