Universal theories with model completions are characterized. A new omitting types theorem is proved. These two results are used to prove the existence of a universal ℵ0-categorical partial order with an interesting embedding property. Other aspects of these results also are considered.

In analogy to ω-logic, one defines M-logic for an arbitrary structure M (see [5],[6]). In M-logic only those structures are considered in which a special part, determined by a fixed unary predicate, is isomorphic to M. Let L be the similarity type of M and T its complete theory. We say that M-logic is κ-compact if it satisfies the compactness theorem for sets of < κ sentences. In this paper we introduce the related notion of compactness for expandability: a model M is κ-compactly expandable if for every extension T′ ⊇ T of cardinality < κ, if every finite subset of T′ can be satisfied in an expansion of M, then T′ can also be satisfied in an expansion of M. Moreover, M is compactly expandable if it is ∥M∥+-compactly expandable. It turns out that M-logic is κ-compact iff M is κ-compactly expandable.

Whereas for first-order logic consistency and finite satisfiability are the same, consistency with T and finite satisfiability in M are, in general, no longer the same thing. We call the model Mκ-expandable if every consistent extension T′ ⊇ T of cardinality < κ can be satisfied in an expansion of M. We say that M is expandable if it is ∥M∥+-expandable. Here we study the relationship between saturation, expandability and compactness for expandability. There is a close parallelism between our results about compactly expandable models and some theorems of S. Shelah about expandable models, which are in fact expressed in terms of categoricity of PC-classes (see [7, Th. VI.5.3, VI.5.4 and VI.5.5]). Our results could be obtained directly from these theorems of Shelah if expandability and compactness for expandability were the same notion.