The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is committed to consolidating its presence in the city's most digital district, 22@. The online university will concentrate its academic and research activity in the Can Jaumandreu complex, an old factory where it already occupies one of its three buildings. It will do so after signing a protocol with the Barcelona City Council, which grants it spaces that are currently empty and that were previously occupied by the Universitat de Barcelona (UB).
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Starting next academic year, the complex will bring together all UOC teaching staff and various research groups, such as the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, the eLearn Center, and the eHealth Center, which until now were dispersed in different centers the university has throughout the city. It should be noted that it will be a campus without students, given that both the teaching and the attention it offers are virtual. "The UOC finally has a unique space," celebrates its rector, Josep A. Planell, who highlights that 22@, as a technological district, is a "totally adequate" place for the university.
"We have the will to reinforce our role in the city of Barcelona as a hub for creation, connection, and dissemination, which is why we believe that by working jointly with the Barcelona City Council we can stimulate both research and the creation of companies based on advanced technology," adds Planell. With this concentration in Poblenou, the UOC also wants to promote synergies among faculty and foster the interdisciplinarity of all its teams. For the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the UOC will thus reinforce and consolidate its presence in its "natural district" of Barcelona and continue to position itself in the new industry of the 21st century, the digital one. "It's very good news," she emphasizes.
University management teams will also be located there
About 800 workers from the university's management teams will also be located in the Can Jaumandreu complex, although many of their colleagues will remain distributed among the different spaces the UOC has in Barcelona, such as the central headquarters on Tibidabo Avenue, where the rectorate will be maintained.
The space ceded by the Barcelona City Council, for a minimum period of 15 years, is located in the former factory building of the complex ---where the UB had been located--- and has an area of about 1,700 square meters. On the other hand, the council will retain two floors in one of the three buildings of the complex ---acquired by the UOC in 2018---, totaling 2,500 square meters. Currently, some municipal services from the Urban Planning area are installed there, and the protocol establishes that the administration may use the space for a period of four years, with the intention that the university will eventually occupy the entire building in the medium term.
The UOC is celebrating its 25th anniversary in a year marked by the impulse of digital transition, teleworking, and distance education. In this regard, Planell points out that they have grown by 15% this year ---when they expected to grow by 7%---. In total, the university has 80,000 students from 142 different countries.