From Researching Virtual Initiatives in Education
The Best Virtual Universities Organisation (BVU) claims to be "the main voice of the virtual higher education community in the world". It has a headquarters in London, United Kingdom.
BVU's mission is to promote the development of a coherent system of virtual higher education and research. BVU aims to achieve this through active support and guidance to its members as autonomous institutions in enhancing the quality of their teaching methods, virtual learning systems and research as well as their contributions to society.
For serving its members, both individual and collective, BVU claims that its main focus is:
- Strengthening the role of virtual universities in the emerging Good Virtual Higher Education through contributing to and influencing policy debate and developing projects and other membership services in the interest of its members
- Working with member institutions through organisation's membership services and the implementation of projects on key issues that aim to improve quality and strengthen individual virtual universities profiles
- Enhancing the virtual universities dimension in higher education and promoting the flow of information through the organisation of regular meetings and conferences as well as through the preparation and publication of studies analysing current trends and highlighting examples of good practice
- Providing advocacy on behalf of its members, both at the national level to promote common policies, and at the international level to promote increased cooperation and enhance the visibility of virtual higher education in a global context
There is a lack of details of staffing on the web site and some aspects have not been updated since 2004. The list of members is very similar to the UNESCO list published a few years ago.
The BVU web site is http://www.bvu.org.uk.
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