Université Virtuelle Francophone

The Université Virtuelle Francophone (UVF, Virtual Francophone University) is based in Montreal, Canada and represents 320 universities and governmental bodies in 52 nations (African, European, and Arab countries and those in the Indian Ocean region).

The organization has the following objectives:

• To unite international francophone expertise in distance education
• To build partnerships of excellence between North and South
• To increase the dissemination of knowledge throughout all regions of the world.

John Baggueley comments at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-29568-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html:

UVF's activities are based on a competitive model that aims to stimulate the best of distance-education methodologies and encourage their constant improvement. In developing its collaborative training activities, the organization's initiatives seek to make balanced use of the new technologies to ensure cost-effectiveness, pedagogical development, and the adoption of a participatory process that is satisfactorily respectful of diverse identities and cultures. UVF's emphasis is on establishing multilateral research and teaching teams to reinforce links between research, training, and community service. The organization is also stressing the need to define international equivalence for educational programs and courses and to promote opportunities for students to "cograduate" from more than one international institution.

Follow-up

There is a distinct lack of material in English about UVF. Paul only found this by the inspired choice of searching Canadian web sites and relying on the impact of their bilingual policy.

Thus at this stage it is impossible to be sure of its relevance.

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