Bavarian Virtual University (vhb)

The funded CLASSIC vhb online courses are primarily intended for students at Bavarian universites. Students can integrate the courses into their studies as a compulsory or elective subject and gain ECTS credits regardless of which university is offering them. CLASSIC vhb courses are developed for use across all universities. Thus, this programme aims to expand the range of online-taught courses at universities.

The funding amount for the creation and implementation of a CLASSIC vhb course varies between 45,000 and 65,000 euros, depending on the number of contact teaching hours per week. In the case of a foreign language version of a course, there is the possibility of increasing the funding amount by 10,000 euros. For the participation of the Referat IV/2 Karriere und Kompetenzen (former Centre for Careers and Competencies), 5,000 euros can also be applied for.

You can find more information on the vhb website.

The OPEN vhb courses are aimed at anyone interested in academic content – especially those who are not members of a higher education institution. The non-curricular courses are available free of charge to all those interested. The courses are usually one contact teaching hour per week and can be used without time constraints.

An OPEN vhb course is funded with up to 30,000 euros. If an adapted version for the OPEN vhb area is developed in parallel to a CLASSIC vhb course, the funding amount applied for for the CLASSIC vhb course can be increased by the necessary funding for the OPEN vhb course.

You can find more information on the vhb website.

The primary target audience of SMART vhb courses are teaching staff at sponsoring universities. With SMART vhb, the vhb offers a repository for online learning units that can be flexibly integrated into classroom teaching. The offering includes both the provision of learning units and their subsequent use across universities. Teachers at our partner universities can access a common pool and incorporate the learning units stored there into their face-to-face courses.

Teachers are given access to an open source educational infrastructure via edu-sharing in order to develop content and place it in the system, view finished content and to be able to integrate it into their own teaching as required.

In the past, the vhb provided up to 2,000 euros per learning unit for the development of learning units that consisted of newly created learning materials. If mainly existing materials, e.g. from existing vhb courses, were newly compiled or only partially changed, up to 500 euros per learning unit were provided.

For more information, visit the vhb's website on their SMART programme.

There are two funding rounds per year – one in spring and one in autumn. The next round will start in October.

Timetable for the current funding round 2023-I:

14 April 2023       Internal deadline for notification of applications
30 April 2023       Deadline for the submission of funding applications
15 July 2023         Announcement of accepted funding applications
1 March 2023      Earliest possible start of project

Further information can be found on the vhb website [German content].

The funding rounds for SMART vhb are usually held annually .

Timetable for the current funding round 2024/24:

02 May 2023                Internal deadline for notification of applications
15 May 2023                Deadline for the submission of funding applications (15. May is a sunday)
31 July 2023                  Announcement of accepted funding applications
01 September 2023    Earliest possible start of project
15 October 2024         End of the project

Further information on the call for proposals can be found on the vhb website [German content].

The vhb representatives represent their universities in the general meeting and are the contact persons at their university for all vhb topics.

The representative for Passau is Vice President Professor Bettina Noltenius.