Abbreviations

This is (to be) a full list of abbreviations for organisations and other activities of relevance to Re.ViCa.

A number of technical abbreviations are added - these do not link to Re.ViCa wiki pages. They are included as they are codes to avoid when creating or selecting codes for institutions and other entities.

Two-character codes are discouraged except when they are country codes but some are so common that we have been forced to adopt them.

Single-character codes are forbidden as they are used for various technical purposes.

Editors! Always check abbreviations first with Google and Acronym finder!

> Index

Abbreviations

(other than 2-character country codes and 1-character codes for technical use)

The following list has been extracted from the list developed for The e-University Compendium and then further developed.

It is aimed to contain the standard abbreviations for all entities, institutions, programmes (especially MELIs etc) and projects of interest in the countries of most interest - plus for open/distance teaching universities across the world.

Added 8 June 2008: FELI, GELI, MELI and NELI.

1. AAOU stands for the Asian Association of Open Universities
2. AIOU stands for the Allama Iqbal Open University (Pakistan)
3. ANCED stands for the Asociación Nacional de Centros de e-Learning y Distancia (Spain)
4. AUQA stands for the Australian Universities Quality Agency
5. ARIADNE stands for Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe
6. ASEAN stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations
7. ATN stands for Australian Technology Network (of universities)
8. AUCC stands for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
9. AUT stands for Auckland University of Technology - no longer for Association of University Teachers which does not now exist
10. BBE stands for Business of Borderless Education (report)
11. BCOU stands for British Columbia Open University (now absorbed into Thompson Rivers University)
12. BECTa was the former name for Becta
13. Becta stands for British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (UK) but the long form is rarely used now
14. BFSU stands for Beijing Foreign Studies University
15. BNU stands for Beijing Normal University
16. BOU stands for the Bangladesh Open University
17. CANARIE stands for Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education, the NREN in Canada
18. CARET stands for the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge
19. CCi stands for Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (US)
20. CCRTVU stands for the China Central Radio & TV University
21. CERNET stands for the China Education and Research Network
22. CETIS stands for Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards but the long form is rarely used now (UK)
23. CHEA stands for Council for Higher Education Accreditation (US) - agency
24. CHEMS stands for Commonwealth Higher Education Management Service - now ceased
25. CMEC stands for the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada
26. CNED stands for Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance. In French the abbreviation is Cned.
27. CNAVES was the Portuguese agency for quality in higher education. It closed in 2007 and is now replaced by another body.
28. CNFD stands for Campus Numérique Francophone de Dakar
29. COL stands for Commonwealth of Learning
30. CRUP stands for Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas (Portugal)
31. CVU stands for Canadian Virtual University. It was also used in the past for Clyde Virtual University.
32. DCSF is the Department for Children, Schools and Families of the UK
33. DCU stands for Dublin City University, Ireland - the host of OSCAIL
34. DDU stands for the Dutch Digital University (we do not use the two-letter abbreviation DU commonly used in Netherlands
35. DELNI is the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland
36. DEST is a department now merged into DEEWR
37. DEEWR is the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in Australia
38. DETYA stood for Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (Australia), later called DEST
39. DfEE stands for the former Department for Education and Employment of the UK, a very old name for DfES
40. DfES stands for the former Department for Education and Skills of the UK, now split into DCSF and DIUS
41. DFID stands for Department for International Development of the UK
42. DIUS is the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills of the UK
43. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disk (no longer Digital Video Disk)
44. EADTU stands for the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities
45. eChina stands for the Sino-UK eLearning Programme
46. ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer System, sometimes called the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System
47. EFQM stands for European Foundation for Quality Management
48. ELWA stood for Education and Learning Wales but is no longer used - see HEFCW
49. ELDDA stands for e-Learning Digital Dashboard
50. EML stands for Educational Markup Language
51. eMM and EMM stand for the e-Learning Maturity Model for benchmarking e-learning
52. ENQA stands for the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
53. ESRC stands for Economic and Social Research Council (UK)
54. EUNITE stands for European University Network for Information Technology in Education
55. e-U stands for the UK e-University (the one that became UKeU)
56. EU stands for European Union
57. FADE stands for the Finnish Association for Distance Education
58. FFCJ stands for Florida Community College‎ at Jacksonville, US
59. FE stands for Further Education (post-school, non-degree courses)
60. FELI stands for Failed E-Learning Initiative
61. FVU stands for Finnish Virtual University
62. GELI stands for Giant E-Learning Initiative
63. GTCS stands for Georgia Technical College System (US)
64. GU8 stands for Global U8 Consortium
65. GUA stands for Global University Alliance, but this phrase has multiple meanings
66. GVU stands for Global Virtual University
67. GVTC stands for Georgia Virtual Technical College (US)
68. HE stands for Higher Education (universities and similar institutions)
69. HECS stands for the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, now replaced by the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP)
70. HEFCE stands for Higher Education Funding Council for England (UK)
71. HEFCW stands for Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (UK)
72. HEI stands for Higher Education Institution
73. HERO stands for Higher Education and Research Opportunities (UK)
74. HESA stands for Higher Education South Africa, an association of Rectors
75. HETAC stands for the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (Ireland)
76. HKU stands for University of Hong Kong
77. HUT used to be used for Helsinki University of Technology but we prefer TKK (Teknillinen KorkeaKoulu)
78. ICDE stands for the International Council for Open and Distance Education
79. ICDL stands for the former International Centre for Distance Learning (at UKOU) - the database is still available to subscribers
80. IEC stands for the Idaho Electronic Campus
81. IGNOU stands for Indira Gandhi National Open University (India)
82. IMS used to stand for Instructional Management System (the initials IMS are no longer an acronym)
83. ITESM stands for Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Monterrey - see Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico)
84. IUA stands for the Irish Universities Association, Ireland (Republic)
85. JANET stands for Joint Academic NETwork (alleged originally to be a name significant to one of the original developers) (UK)
86. JIU stands for Jones International University
87. JPPSG stands for Joint Procurement Policy and Strategy Group (UK Higher Education)
88. KNOU stands for Korea National Open University
89. LSDA stands for the former Learning and Skills Development Agency (UK) - now split into LSN and QIA
90. LTSC stands for Learning Technology Standards Committee (of IEEE)
91. MELI stands for Major E-Learning Initiative
92. MESI stands for Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (Russia)
93. MOO stands for Multi-User Dungeons, Object Oriented
94. NADE stands for the Norwegian Association for Distance Education
95. NDEC stands for the National Distance Education Centre of Ireland - Oscail in Irish
96. NELI stands for Notable E-Learning Initiative
97. NJVU stands for New Jersey Virtual University (US)
98. NKI stands for NKI Distance Education, the main distance learning provider in Norway
99. NKS stands for NKS Nettstudier, sometimes called NKS Distance Education, Norway (to be carefully distinguished from NKI)
100. NOKUT stands for Nasjonalt organ for kvalitet i utdanningen, the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education
101. NOU stands for Norway Opening Universities, the innovation programme in e-learning for HE in Norway
102. NQAI stands for the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland
103. NREN stands for National Research and Education Network
104. NSHU stands for the Swedish Agency for Networks and Cooperation in Higher Education, formerly called the Swedish Net University Agency - be careful to distinguish this from NHSU, the NHS University of the UK
105. NSU stands for Nova Southeastern University (US)
106. NUCCAT stands for Northern Universities Consortium for Credit Accumulation and Transfer
107. NUS stands for National University of Singapore
108. NVU stands for Norwegian Networked University, an association in Norway
109. NZQA stands for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority
110. OBHE stands for the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education
111. OECD stands for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
112. OISE stands for the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education - part of the University of Toronto, Canada
113. OKI stands for Open Knowledge Initiative
114. OLA stands for Open Learning Agency (British Columbia) – to be closed. It could also stand for Open Learning Australia.
115. OPNZ stands for the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand
116. OU is a common abbreviation for UK Open University - we try to use UKOU instead
117. OUHK stands for Open University of Hong Kong
118. OUJ stands for the Open University of Japan, formerly the University of the Air
119. OUN stands for Open Universiteit Nederland
120. OUSL stands for the Open University of Sri Lanka
121. PANdora stands for Pan Asia Networking distance and open resource access, a study project
122. PnM or PNM stand for Pick&Mix
123. PROMETEUS stands for PROmoting Multimedia access to Education and Training in EUropean Society
124. PRTVU stands for one of the provincial-level Radio & TV universities in China
125. PUW stands for Polski Uniwersytet Wirtualny, the Polish Virtual University
126. QAA stands for Quality Assurance Agency (for Higher Education in the UK)
127. QCA stands for Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (UK)
128. RIO stands for Reusable Information Object (as at Cisco)
129. RLO stands for Reusable Learning Object (as at Cisco)
130. RMIT stands for Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (former name for RMIT) (Australia)
131. RRU stands for Royal Roads University, Canada
132. SCONUL stands for Society of College, National and University Libraries
133. SCORM stands for Sharable Course (or Courseware or Content) Object Reference Model
134. SCQF stands for Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (UK)
135. SFC stands for the Scottish Funding Council (UK)
136. SFEFC stood for the former Scottish Further Education Funding Council, now part of the Scottish Funding Council (UK)
137. SFU stands for Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, Canada
138. SHEFC stands for the former Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, now part of the Scottish Funding Council (UK)
139. SHU stands for Sheffield Hallam University (UK)
140. STOU stands for Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (Thailand)
141. SURF stands for the Dutch educational network (Netherlands)
142. SURFnet stands for SURF network (Netherlands)
143. SVC stands for Swiss Virtual Campus
144. TechBC stand for the former Technical University of British Columbia, Canada
145. TÉLUQ (and various variants) stands for the Télé-université du Québec, now part of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
146. TKK stands for Helsinki University of Technology (Teknillinen korkeakoulu)
147. TLTP stands for Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (UK)
148. TQEF stands for Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (UK)
149. TRU stands for Thompson Rivers University (Canada)
150. U21 stands for Universitas 21
151. UAb stands for Universidade Aberta (Portugal), the Portuguese Open University
152. UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions System (UK)
153. UCF stands for University of Central Florida (US)
154. UCISA stands for the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UK)
155. Ufi (or sometimes UFI) stands for University for Industry, who deliver learndirect (UK)
156. UHI stands for University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) (UK)
157. UKeU is the UK e-University, more properly called UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited
158. UKEU stands for UKeU
159. UKOLN stands for UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UK)
160. UKOU stands for UK Open University
161. ULP stands for Université Louis Pasteur (France)
162. UNE stands for University of New England (US)
163. UNED stands for Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
164. UNINETT is the National Education and Research Network for Norway
165. UniSA stands for University of South Australia
166. UOC stands for Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Open University of Catalonia
167. UOPX stands for University of Phoenix, (US)
168. UPM stands for Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, the Technical University of Madrid (Spain)
169. UQAM stands for the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada)
170. USQ stands for University of Southern Queensland
171. UT stands for University of Twente (Netherlands) but also Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia) - do not use
172. UVF stands for Université Virtuelle Francophone
173. UVT stands for Université Virtuelle de Tunis
174. VHB stands for Bavarian Virtual University (Germany)
175. VUSME stands for Virtual University for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
176. WCET stands for Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications
177. WGU stands for Western Governors University
178. WTO stands for World Trade Organisation
179. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language
180. YCMOU stands for Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, (India)
181. ZOU stands for Zimbabwe Open University

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