Syrian Virtual University
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The Syrian Virtual University is a Syrian educational institution established by the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education. It provides virtual education (using the internet) to students from around the world. It was established on the 2nd of September 2002 and is the first virtual education institution in the region, and as of 2006, remains the only one. The goals of the SVU include offering education to those who want to learn but cannot afford to do so by going to a "brick and mortar" university. It is headquartered at the Ministry of Higher Education building, Damascus.
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[edit] Administration
[edit] Board of Trustees
Dr. Najah Al Attar Chairman
Dr. Karam Karam
Dr. Shafik Al Akhrass
[edit] President
Dr. Riad Daoudi
[edit] Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. Rakan Razzouk
[edit] Vice President for Life-Long Learning
Dr. Anas Tarah
[edit] Program Directors
ISE: Dr. Maher Suliman
BIT: Dr. Khalil Ajami
HND: Dr. Salam Al-Bizri
[edit] Academic Programs
SVU provides two kinds of academic programs: partnership programs, those provided in cooperation with foreign universities; and domestic programs, those that are authored by the SVU and taught by local Syrian professors. Foreign programs are often provided in English; and they are taught by the universities that offer them. Most domestic programs are provided in Arabic, with some exceptions.
Currently, partenship programs include programs that award, upon completion, degrees that range from the associate degree to the Phd. Domestic programs award either associate degrees or Bachelor degrees.
Most of the programs offered are Computer Science programs.
[edit] Controversy and Accpetance
[edit] Internet Access
One of issues which faces the SVU is the lack of a proper broad-band internet infrastructure in Syria. This can be viewed as a strategic problem, as it hinders potential students. To solve this issue, the university created a number of telecenters (at a great expense) so that students who don't have broadband internet could attend their lessons comfortably. With the introduction of ADSL in 2004, this became less of a problem. Nowadays (2006), ISDN and ADSL are reltively widespread in Syria, and the costs are acceptable. There is currently a plan to provide free internet access to SVU students.
[edit] Support for "Alternative" Operating Systems
The software currently in use (as of 2006) supports only Windows Systems (9x, ME, NT,2000,XP). Only the following subsystems are platform-independent: The Email Subsystem, The Forums Subsystems. There are plans underway to improve that.
