Bavarian Virtual University

The Bavarian Virtual University (VHB), sometimes called the Virtual University of Bavaria (Germany), has the truename Virtuelle Universität Bayern. It is also sometimes called the Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern; hence the abbreviation VHB.

It is one of the constituent consortia of the three-Land consortium Zentralstelle für Fernstudien an Fachhochschulen in Germany.

The Bavarian Virtual University was founded in the year 2000 and launched its first programme in May 2000. The VHB is an institute set up by the nine universities and the 17 universities of applied sciences of the Free State of Bavaria, one of the 16 German Länder. Like its member universities, the VHB is financed by the Bavarian Ministry for Higher Education, Science, Research and the Arts.

The VHB provides online courses with an equivalent of two to six ECTS credit points which the member universities can integrate into their courses of study. The VHB helps its member universities to enlarge and enrich their programes, and it helps the students to organize their studies more flexibly.

Today, about 330 courses in 13 fields of study are available or in preparation. The average enrolment per course is 173 (2011). Courses are mainly offered in German, but there are also a few offered in English.

Only students registered at Bavarian universities can apply, and those participating ought to be supervised individually by tutors.

The Bavarian Virtual University web site is at: http://www.vhb.org/en/homepage/

Reports

1. Blended learning at the macro level – the experience of the Bavarian Virtual University (Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern), by Paul Rühl and Godehard Ruppert.
2. This institution/programme was discussed as a case study in the Megatrends project in its second report, Megaproviders of e-learning in Europe (PDF - 212 pages - EN), 2007 (ISBN 978 82 562 88184).

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