MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 
NATIONAL TRAINING FOUNDATION 
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 
PETROZAVODSK STATE UNIVERSITY 
NORTHERN EUROPEAN OPEN UNIVERSITY 

L E T T E R OF I N V I T A T I O N

Dear Colleagues,
It gives us the pleasure to invite you to participate in 

THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL SEMINAR,
"Consortium 'Northern European Open University' in region's educational space: open education and regional international co-operation",
to be held in Petrozavodsk on November 19 - 21, 2003

GENERAL INFORMATION

Seminar's goal:
To sum up the results of the project, "Creation of the Northern European Open University (NEOU)" and to identify the strategy for the NEOU consortium's activities after accomplishing the work under project, considering the basic trends in the development of higher education, open and distance learning, as well as international and regional co-operation in the fields of research and education.

Seminar's lines:

• Open and virtual universities as elements of common research and educational space; 
• Management of integrated and distributed higher education structures, with the organization of the NEOU consortium's activities management taken as an example (see Appendix 1);
• Higher schools' experience in creating and participating in the work of open and virtual universities, with the NEOU as an example;
• Experience in creating and developing the system of organizational, personnel and information support for the NEOU's activities, as well as the open and distance learning system;
• Promising lines in the NEOU's activities on three levels: consortium as a whole, relationship between the NEOU and PetrSU, and interaction between NEOU's structural subdivisions;
• Development of open and distance education;
• Promotion of international and regional co-operation in the fields of research and education;
• Project and innovative activities and fund rising within open and virtual universities, with the NEOU as an example.

Seminar's Organizing Committee:

• Professor V.N. Vasiliev, Rector of PetrSU, President of the NEOU, NTF Project's Leader, - Chairman of the Seminar;
• Associate Professor N.R. Toivonen, Vice-rector for International Relations of PetrSU, Director of the NEOY at PetrSU - Vice-Chairman of the Seminar;
• Professor Michael D. Parsons, Chair, College of Education, Florida International University, Miami, USA;
• O.Yu. Derbeneva, Head of the Educational Technologies Department, PetrSU, Assistant Director of the NEOU at PetrSU;
• A.N. Koryakina, Leading expert of the Educational Technologies Department, PetrSU, Head of the NEOU's Open and Distance Education Department.

Terms for participating in the Seminar:
Among the Seminar's participants we expect: representatives from Russian, foreign and international organizations - the NEOU consortium members, organizations - partners in PetrSU's and the NEOU's research and educational projects, organizations interested in co-operation with the NEOU, members of PetrSU's Academic Council, PetrSU's and the NEOU's administrative and managerial personnel and teaching staff, managers from the NEOU's structural subdivisions, consultants and executors of the project on "Creation of the NEOU"

The Seminar's Programme is presented in Appendix 2.

The Seminar is planned to be held with the NTF's financial support, within the completion phase of the project on "Creation of the NEOU". For nonresidents, accommodation in Petrozavodsk and participation in the Seminar's events are going to be paid for from the Seminar's funds.

To take part in the Seminar, one should submit the Application Form (Appendix 3), along with the summary of the paper (see the requirements for the summaries in Appendix 4). The deadline for Application Forms and Summaries is 10 November 2003. 

The Organizers leave it to their discretion whether to include summaries in the Seminar's Proceedings and oral presentations in the Seminar's Programme or not, and fix the time and duration of the presentation. The authors of the summaries and papers to be published will receive a copy of the Seminar's Proceedings.