Universidade Aberta
IC-1: Institutional Boundary

Established in 1988, Universidade Aberta (UAb) is the only institution of public higher education in Portugal of Distance Learning. Due to its purpose, UAb uses all the time, in its teaching activities, the most advanced technologies and methods of Distance Learning, saving no geographical borders or physical barriers, and giving special emphasis to the expansion of Portuguese language and culture within the Lusophony space (migrant communities and Portuguese speaking countries). In this context, UAb offers higher education anywhere in the world (Undergraduate, Master and Doctorate degrees) and Lifelong Learning courses. All pedagogical offers are integrated into the Bologna Process and are taught under elearning since 2008, the year that UAb became a reference European institution in the area of advanced elearning and online learning through the recognition of its Virtual Teaching Model, unprecedented in Portugal and developed by this institution. In 2010, Distance Learning practiced at UAb was awarded with the Prize of EFQUEL - European Foundation for Quality in Elearning and certification of The UNIQUe Quality Label for the use of ICT in Higher Education (Universities and Institutes). At the same year, UAb was also qualified by an international panel of independent experts as the reference institution for teaching in elearning system in Portugal. In 2011, UAb was awarded with the 1st Level of Excellency of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Investigation and Research supports both the pedagogical model, best certified practices, and scientific contents applied to e-learning. The UAb currently hosts research units: LE @ D (The Distance Education and e-Learning Lab - research center dedicated to distance education, innovation and ICT); the CEMRI - Study Centre for Migration and Intercultural Relations, the Polo Centre for Research in Art and Communication (CIAC), University of Algarve, and the Polo Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra. Universidade Aberta promotes the exchange of knowledge with the academic world, through the institutional hosting of PhD students and masters, research fellows, sharing of scientific equipment, acting also as the host institution of national and international scientific scope projects, led by researchers from UAB. UAb also intervenes, together with other institutions in students training to develop research projects and to provide services to the community. UAb has highly qualified human resources in the areas of Distance Learning Education; Science and Technology; Social Sciences and Management; and Humanities.