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. BBE stands for Business of Borderless Education (report)
9. BCOU stands for British Columbia Open University (now absorbed into Thompson Rivers University)
10. BECTa was the former name for Becta
11. Becta stands for British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (UK) but the long form is rarely used now
12. BFSU stands for Beijing Foreign Studies University
13. BOU stands for the Bangladesh Open University
14. CANARIE stands for Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education
15. CETIS stands for Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards but the long form is rarely used now
16. CHEA stands for Council for Higher Education Accreditation (US) - agency
17. CHEMS stands for Commonwealth Higher Education Management Service - now ceased
18. CNED stands for Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance. In French the abbreviation is Cned.
19. CNAVES was the Portuguese agency for quality in higher education. It closed in 2007 and is now replaced by another body.
20. CNFD stands for Campus Numérique Francophone de Dakar
21. COL stands for Commonwealth of Learning
22. CRUP stands for Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas (Portugal)
23. CVU stands for Canadian Virtual University. It was also used in the past for Clyde Virtual University.
24. DCSF is the Department for Children, Schools and Families of the UK
25. DDU stands for the Dutch Digital University (we do not use the two-letter abbreviation DU commonly used in Netherlands
26. DELNI is the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland
27. DEST is a department now merged into DEEWR
28. DEEWR is the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in Australia
29. DETYA stood for Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (Australia), later called DEST
30. DfEE stands for the former Department for Education and Employment of the UK, a very old name for DfES
31. DfES stands for the former Department for Education and Skills of the UK, now split into DCSF and DIUS
32. DFID stands for Department for International Development of the UK
33. DIUS is the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills of the UK
34. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disk (no longer Digital Video Disk)
35. ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer System, sometimes called the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System
36. EFQM stands for European Foundation for Quality Management
37. ELWA stood for Education and Learning Wales but is no longer used - see HEFCW
38. ELDDA stands for e-Learning Digital Dashboard
39. EML stands for Educational Markup Language
40. eMM and EMM stand for the e-Learning Maturity Model for benchmarking e-learning
41. ENQA stands for the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
42. ESRC stands for Economic and Social Research Council
43. EUNITE stands for European University Network for Information Technology in Education
44. e-U stands for the UK e-University (the one that became UKeU)
45. EU stands for European Union
46. FE stands for Further Education (post-school, non-degree courses)
47. FELI stands for Failed E-Learning Initiative
48. FVU stands for Finnish Virtual University
49. GELI stands for Giant E-Learning Initiative
50. GU8 stands for Global U8 Consortium
51. GUA stands for Global University Alliance, but this phrase has multiple meanings
52. GVU stands for Global Virtual University
53. HE stands for Higher Education (universities and similar institutions)
54. HECS stands for the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, now replaced by the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP)
55. HEFCE stands for Higher Education Funding Council for England
56. HEFCW stands for Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
57. HEI stands for Higher Education Institution
58. HERO stands for Higher Education and Research Opportunities
59. HESA stands for Higher Education South Africa, an association of Rectors
60. HKU stands for University of Hong Kong
61. HUT used to be used for Helsinki University of Technology but we prefer TKK (Teknillinen KorkeaKoulu)
62. ICDL stands for International Centre for Distance Learning (at OU)
63. IGNOU stands for Indira Gandhi National Open University (India)
64. IMS used to stand for Instructional Management System (the initials IMS are no longer an acronym)
65. ITESM stands for Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Monterrey - see Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico)
66. JANET stands for Joint Academic NETwork (alleged originally to be a name significant to one of the original developers)
67. JIU stands for Jones International University
68. JPPSG stands for Joint Procurement Policy and Strategy Group (UK HE)
69. KNOU stands for Korea National Open University
70. LSDA stands for Learning and Skills Development Agency (UK)
71. LTSC stands for Learning Technology Standards Committee (of IEEE)
72. MELI stands for Major E-Learning Initiative
73. MOO stands for Multi-User Dungeons, Object Oriented
74. NELI stands for Notable E-Learning Initiative
75. NHSU - and sometimes NHSu - stands for National Health Service University (UK)
76. NUCCAT stands for Northern Universities Consortium for Credit Accumulation and Transfer
77. NUS stands for National University of Singapore
78. NZQA stands for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority
79. OECD stands for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
80. OKI stands for Open Knowledge Initiative
81. OLA stands for Open Learning Agency (British Columbia) – to be closed. It could also stand for Open Learning Australia.
82. OU is a common abbreviation for UK Open University - we try to use UKOU instead
83. OUHK stands for Open University of Hong Kong
84. OUJ stands for the Open University of Japan, formerly the University of the Air
85. OUN stands for Open Universiteit Nederland
86. OUSL stands for the Open University of Sri Lanka
87. PANdora stands for Pan Asia Networking distance and open resource access, a study project
88. PnM or PNM stand for Pick&Mix
89. PROMETEUS stands for PROmoting Multimedia access to Education and Training in EUropean Society
90. QAA stands for Quality Assurance Agency (for Higher Education in the UK)
91. QCA stands for Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
92. RIO stands for Reusable Information Object (as at Cisco)
93. RLO stands for Reusable Learning Object (as at Cisco)
94. RMIT stands for Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (former name for RMIT)
95. SCONUL stands for Society of College, National and University Libraries
96. SCORM stands for Sharable Course (or Courseware or Content) Object Reference Model
97. SCQF stands for Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
98. SFC stands for the Scottish Funding Council
99. SFEFC stood for the former Scottish Further Education Funding Council, now part of the Scottish Funding Council
100. SHEFC stands for the former Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, now part of the Scottish Funding Council
101. SHU stands for Sheffield Hallam University
102. STOU stands for Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (Thailand)
103. SURF stands for the Dutch educational network
104. SURFnet stands for SURF network
105. SVC stands for Swiss Virtual Campus
106. TKK stands for Helsinki University of Technology (Teknillinen korkeakoulu)
107. TLTP stands for Teaching and Learning Technology Programme
108. TQEF stands for Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund
109. TRU stands for Thompson Rivers University (Canada)
110. U21 stands for Universitas 21
111. UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions System
112. UCISA stands for the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UK)
113. Ufi stands for University for Industry (learndirect)
114. UHI stands for University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland)
115. UKeU is the UK e-University, more properly called UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited
116. UKEU stands for UKeU
117. UKOLN stands for UK Office for Library and Information Networking
118. UKOU stands for UK Open University
119. UNED stands for Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
120. UniSA stands for University of South Australia
121. UOC stands for Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Open University of Catalonia
122. UOP stands for University of Phoenix
123. USQ stands for University of Southern Queensland
124. UT stands for University of Twente (Netherlands) but also Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia) - do not use
125. UVF stands for Université Virtuelle Francophone
126. UVT stands for Université Virtuelle de Tunis
127. VHB stands for Bavarian Virtual University (Germany)
128. WCET stands for Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications
129. WGU stands for Western Governors University
130. WTO stands for World Trade Organisation
131. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language
132. ZOU stands for Zimbabwe Open University

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> Index