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

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