Mission and values

The mission of the International University of La Rioja  is the comprehensive training of students in the skills required by today’s society.

UNIR is committed to meeting the needs and expectations of all stakeholders in the process (students, teaching and research faculty, administrative and service staff, public administrations and society in general), through quality education that strives for continuous improvement and excellence.

We are especially sensitive attending the needs of individuals whose circumstances prevent them from studying on campus or who prefer the more open, innovative solutions that emerging technologies can provide online.

Social responsibility guides UNIR’s policy on topics as basic as:

• Making access to university studies possible for any person who, with the appropriate prior training, desires it; and eliminating the barriers of distance, time, and place, as well as cultural and social obstacles that might stand in the way.
• Implement research and teaching resources through the development of emerging technologies in order to offer high-level education with special attention to those who demand cultural, technical and social changes.

The International University of La Rioja’s values are:

• Commitment to students’ success.
• Personalization of teaching tasks, and guides the students throughout their studies and supports them as they seek employment.
• Ongoing attention to innovation in our teaching and learning methodology.
• Fostering and promoting an entrepreneurial spirit.
• Ability to respond to the expectations of students, teaching and research faculty, administrative and service staff, public administrations and society in general.
• Offer degrees and study programs that meet the needs of society.
• Meticulous attention to the quality of instruction and our resources.
• Open approach to the international dimensions of university education.

People have always had the desire to reach a higher level of knowledge. Aristotle expressed this clearly when he said that “all men by nature desire to know.” This explains why today’s University—the seat of higher knowledge—is the western civilization’s oldest civil institution. The University’s continued existence, in spite of profound social changes, has been possible because it has managed to maintain its basic characteristics alongside the developments every historical age has introduced.

At UNIR we think that the main basic characteristics that must be preserved in the university are the following:

• The University, as Alfonso X the Wise used to say, is a conjunction of teachers and students, moved by a desire to generate and disseminate knowledge, as well as to learn it. This conjunction explains that professors cannot be researchers alone; they must be aware of their educational—not merely instructive—responsibility.
• The University’s vocation is to attain to true knowledge, based on in-depth reflection that seeks for evidence through the critical exercise of reason, regardless of the ideas that are or are no longer fashionable, no matter what the most influential opinion groups of each era try to impose.
• The University’s task is both remote and close by. For this reason, it must research basic, general and theoretical problems, in work that is seemingly disconnected from the social circumstances of the time. But it is equally called to collaborate in solving problems in the environment where it operates, primarily through the formation of competent professionals capable of working with an attitude of service towards those they live with, constantly seeking the common good.
• The University will always maintain an atmosphere of respect and academic courtesy that overrides disagreements over ideas. Seneca’s words, that man is a sacred thing for man, express the concept of the dignity of a human being. This must always be recognized and promoted, and serve as the background for everything the university community undertakes.

Along with these features, UNIR, the Online University, is specifically committed to incorporating new technologies as an efficient tool for learning in a university environment. There are three key aspects of our methodology that we wish to highlight in particular.

First, UNIR aspires to provide effective instruction that focuses on each student individually, adapting the pace of the students’ learning process to his/her circumstances.

Second, to fulfill this aspiration, UNIR provides each student with a tutor to avoid the problems of anonymity and overcrowding so common in higher education.

Third, UNIR ensures that the faculty and management personnel are fully committed to each and every student who embarks—sometimes with considerable sacrifice—on the adventure of pursuing a university degree.