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Milestones

2008 | Agreement on the Founding of the European Network of Networks for Higher Education Online (EuNeOn) signed Oct 7 in Brussels. The founding partners are the Bavarian Virtual University, the Estonian Information Technology Foundation, the Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences, Finnish Virtual University and the Swedish Agency for Networks and Cooperation in Higher Education.

2008 | eLene (eLearning network) Cooperation agreement signed between the nine European partners.

2007 | The FVU Service Unit started operations as an independent institution of the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), and the FVU co-operation among universities will continue within the framework of the new consortium statutes.

2006 | Agreement of the revision of the rules and regulations of the Finnish Virtual University signed Nov 24.

2006 | Cooperation Agreement signed between the Finnish Virtual University and the Bavarian Virtual University.

2005 | FVU Strategy for 2005-2010 adopted.

2004 | Networks and ICT support units an everyday part of university life. Flexible Study Rights Service JOOPAS launched.

2003 | Nation-wide Agreement on Flexible Study Rights signed June 11, 2003.

2001 | FVU Consortium Agreement signed Jan 18, 2001.

Background 1998 -2000

The idea of a national virtual university came from two directions: from the universities themselves and from the Ministry of Education's Information Strategy for Education and Research, 2000-2004.

Terms such as "virtual university" and "online university" started to pop up in the international and domestic university discussions at the end of the previous decade. At the same time, discussions began about the globalization of educational markets and a European higher education area. In Finland, the discussion swiftly crystallized into concrete proposals:

  • At the 1998 term-opening ceremony of the Helsinki University of Technology, Rector Paavo Uronen brought up the idea of "Finland's Online University".
  • At the same time, the Minister of Education of that time, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, suggested that the committee preparing the Information Strategy for Education and Research should include in the strategy a proposal for a virtual university. Such a proposal was, in fact, included in the new information strategy for 2000-2004.
  • Minister of Education Maija Rask set up, in the summer of 1999, an organization for implementing the strategy, including a working group on the virtual university.
  • The working group prepared an implementation plan, according to which the development unit of the virtual university was established in 2000.