Project Management Agency for Innovation in Initial and Continuing VET
Virtual University of Applied Sciences (VFH)
The Virtual University of Applied Sciences for Technology, Informatics and Economics ("VFH") project began work in 1998 with the development of modular, online degree programmes. This project led to the founding of a university network in 2001. Headed by Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, this network of seven universities in six states offers online degree programmes in "media informatics" and industrial engineering on a cross-border basis.
This makes the Virtual University of Applied Sciences the only German university that offers two complete, regular online degree programmes.
The Virtual University of Applied Sciences will lose its project status at the end of 2004. The two online degree programmes will then be firmly established and become a permanent part of the programmes offered by the universities in the VFH network. Following the end of the project, the range of online degree programmes and university-level online continuing training offered by the Virtual University of Applied Sciences is to be continually expanded, with content decisions being guided by trends and the changing demands of the job and education market.
Starting with the 2004 summer semester, the Virtual University of Applied Sciences will offer for the first time individual modules - such as marketing and quality management - from the degree programmes which individuals can take to continue their education on a pin-pointed basis. Such individuals can use the individual modules as needed, with or without a mentor or professor's guidance. Those persons who successfully complete a module or a compact set of modules are issued a certificate.
More than 600 students registered for courses during the 2003/04 winter semester, with demand being several times greater than the number of openings available. The first Bachelor degrees in media informatics will be awarded in the autumn of 2004. The Master's degree programme in media informatics will also be launched at that time.
The Virtual University of Applied Sciences has been firmly integrated into regional and international structures through the Portal nach vorn ("Portal Forward" - online courses and degree programmes for Schleswig-Holstein) programme and the Baltic Sea Virtual Campus (online degree programmes offered together with 12 universities in the Baltic Sea area).
