User:Gazze77a/Domuni University

Domuni University (Domuni Universitas), known as Domuni, is a private institution of higher education, entirely by distance, founded and administered by the Order of Preachers. With an international dimension, Domuni has three faculties: Philosophy, Theology, Social Sciences.

With its headquarters in Toulouse, the university has several offices, particularly in Brussels for its general management, Geneva, Bologna, Madrid for the management of the Spanish-speaking section, and also in Kigali for the African section. The university’s teaching staff consists of 250 professors, of which 80% are Dominicans. Originally created in French (Domuni-FR), the university opened a Spanish-speaking section (Domuni-ES) in 2012, English (Domuni-EN) in 2013, Italian in 2017, and since 2014 offers courses in Arabic. More than forty nationalities are represented among the 2000 students at the university.

History
Domuni University was founded in 1999 by the Dominicans of the Provinces of Toulouse and France.The project was initiated by the Dominican brother Michel Van Aerde. After 5 years as the director of Centre Bartolomé de Las Casas au Pérou, this brother from the Province of Toulouse stated his interest in the internet for the most isolated communities. Sensing the potential of the web to transmit the wealth of Dominican intellectual heritage to great numbers, the brother started the project of creating the first entirely online Dominican university, of which he is today the General Manager.

In 1999, the two Dominican provinces of Toulouse and France created Domuni in the form of legal entity 1901. Marie Monnet became associated in the project in 2006 and became Director of Studies for the university in 2008. The institution is declared a Private Institution of Higher Education at the Rectorate of Toulouse.

In December 2010, a partnership agreement was signed with the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University of Rome (Angelicum), allowing Domuni University to offer canonical degrees in Religious Sciences. Domuni signed an agreement with the University of Lorraine on April 25, 2013, followed by another agreement with the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), on June 1, 2017. These agreements made it possible for Domuni to offer state degrees in theology, in accordance with the European norms specified within the Bologna Agreement (LMD).

In 2012, the university expanded on an international level with the inauguration of a Spanish-speaking section, followed by the launch of an English-speaking section on October 15, 2013. An Italian-speaking section was established in 2017.

The Moodle Platform
Domuni University operates entirely online, with the use of an online education platform called Moodle. Moodle makes it possible to address a very large audience, including students located within the university’s more isolated geographic areas (150 étudiants d'origine africaine en 2014).

Studies are available in the form of:


 * self-study content (downloadable courses in PDF format)


 * live content (online seminars, exchanges with teachers, student forums)
 * each semester concludes with a supervised exam, organized at one of the university’s approved Dominican examination centers. These centers are located within the geographical area of​​each student.

In addition to the university's online resources, students have access to the Dominican libraries, found worldwide. Teachers and students can interact in person during study days, which Domuni has been organizing since 2009 (Angers, Paris, Bretagne), at cultural sessions (French Biblical and Archaeological School, Jerusalem 2017) at cultural sessions (French Biblical and Archaeological School, Jerusalem 2017).

Admissions and Study Programs
Enrollments and results do not depend on academic university years, but on the organization of the student. Studies can be started at any time during the year, and the duration of a course can be adapted to the student’s personal situation. The courses, which are taught in four languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian), can be followed by any student, even if the language of choice is not their mother tongue.

An Adapted Approach to Pedagogy
Teacher-researchers at Domuni University have developed an expertise in distance teaching for higher education, detailed in various articles, on TV programs and radio broadcasts.

Training
Domuni University offers degrees (state diplomas, etc.) in Theology, Philosophy and Social Sciences. The institution also offers “à la carte” courses (800 courses downloadable in pdf).

Publishing House
In 2012, the university created Domuni-Press, an academic publishing house, which publishes the work of researchers in five collections (Bible, Theology, History, Spirituality, Society). To collaborate on some of its works, Domuni-Press signed a co-publishing agreement with the University Press of the Catholic Institute of Toulouse on October 25, 2013.

Journal
The research that takes place at Domuni gives birth to the publication of the journal Telos, published twice a year and available in digital and paper formats, as well as in three languages (French, English, Spanish).

Partnerships
Domuni is partners with numerous research centers and therefore part of a large international network. Among their partners is the Catholic Institute of Toulouse, Universidad Santo Tomas (Bogota), Lumen Vitae (Bruxelles). The university maintains a special relationship with the Angelicum in Rome, the University of Lorraine in France and the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. These partnership agreements allow for the establishment of a mutual recognition of credits and diplomas.