IT University West

It-vest, networking universities, is an educational and scientific network between four university institutions in the Western part of Denmark:

University of Southern Denmark Aalborg University Aarhus University and Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University

Background

It-vest was formed in response to public and private enterprises in Denmark claiming and forecasting a severe lack of qualified IT employees with university degrees. Fewer high school students were considering enrolling in IT programs as they considered IT a tool, not an education program or a profession. At the same time other graduates - especially from the humanities - found it difficult to find jobs in private companies.

In 1999, the Danish government established and financed the network to strengthen the IT courses and research developed by the participating universities. The primary goal of it-vest is to develop and market educational programs. It-vest has a board consisting of deans from the participating universities and representatives from the ICT industry.

Educations

Altogether, University of Southern Denmark, Aalborg University, Aarhus School of Business and Aarhus University are educating half of all IT graduates in Denmark. The universities are offering several educations with focus on IT:

MSc in IT– an interdisciplinary IT Master’s degree programme. Master of IT – a flexible continuous education programme aimed at professionals within the fields of IT development, IT implementation and IT teaching. Diploma in IT – a continuous education at bachelor level. Master of ICT and Learning – a continuous education aimed at teachers and persons involved in teaching.

With the intention of making continuing education within the IT-area and e-learning accessible to a bigger target group, IT University West is responsible for the FlexNet project "Learningnet.dk (DK)" and the book "Flexibel learning and teaching (DK)". With Learningnet.dk IT-west disseminates its resources and experience on e-learning, specifically designed for educators and developers of higher education.

Its intranet lists design manual, resources and information about IT West University and the Student network (DK).

IT University West is also involved in "Master in ICT and Learning (MIL)", a web based 2-year part-time master that is offered by Aalborg University in cooperation with Aarhus University, Copenhagen Business School, DPU (School of Education - University of Aarhus) and Roskilde University. It uses FirstClass as its VLE. Relevant documents: Papers that exemplify the literature in the MIL Curriculum.

The university’s web site is at http://www.it-vest.dk (Its English site can be found at http://www.it-vest.dk/en

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