The Bulgarian Virtual University (BVU) is a partnership of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n universities collaborating in the development of distance and

online education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

.Bulgarian Virtual University (in Bulgarian)
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History

The Bulgarian Virtual University (BVU) was established at the end of 2004. The initiative came from the Chairmen of the Council of Rectors of the

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; bg, Българска академия на науките, ''Balgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated ''БАН'') is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy ...

, the Higher Certifying Committee, the Union of Teachers, the Federation of the Unions of Scientists, the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies and other educational, research and business organisations. The agreement to set the BVU up was signed by the Rectors of 37 Universities and the Directors of 27 Institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Mission

The idea of the initiators and founders was that the Bulgarian Virtual University would initially be a national educational portal to all universities in the country (similar to the

Canadian Virtual University The Canadian Virtual University (french: Université virtuelle canadienne; abbreviated bilingually as CVU-UVC) was a consortium of Canadian universities that specialized in online distance education. Founded in 2000 to promote online programs in ...

) and its independent functions and importance would gradually increase. As Professor Y. Kouzmanova, PhD, Chairman of the Council of Rectors, stated in her welcoming speech, ''This is the first realistic step towards the integration of the universities in Bulgaria.'' BVU has not been established with the aim of becoming a governing body, thus restricting and taking over some of the functions of the regional universities. The goal of BVU is not to teach students and confer qualifications at the moment because in Bulgaria there is no still legislation for virtual education.. The goal of BVU and the programme as a whole is to provide all-round technical and methodological support to the regional universities in their transition to electronic education, namely in setting up computer rooms and adopting software platforms for electronic education, as well as in developing web-based courses and virtual laboratories, creating virtual libraries, centres for distance learning, virtual universities and campuses. Another equally important goal of BVU is to promote the integration of the Bulgarian with the European and world virtual educational space.

Success

At the end of 2008 four years will have passed since the establishment of the Bulgarian Virtual University. Besides serving successfully as a portal to the regional universities, this site allows an interested person to start his search from a specific area of higher education, and going through the professional field, to find a relevant degree programme, and, eventually, the sites of the universities offering Bachelor courses in this programme. The BVU site is also the centre of the national network of virtual libraries in Bulgaria.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.bvu-bg.eu/ Educational organizations based in Bulgaria