WHAT IS ECTS?

ECTS, the European Community Course Credit Transfer System, was developed by the Commission of the European Union in order to provide common procedures to guarantee academic recognition of studies abroad. It provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements, and transferring them from one institution to another.

It was introduced in 1989, within the framework of Erasmus, and it is now part of the Socrates programme. ECTS is the only credit system which has been successfully tested and used across Europe. Initially born for mere credit transfer, it is recently developing into an accumulation system to be implemented at institutional, regional, national and European level. This is one of the key objectives of the Bologna Declaration of June 1999.

The ECTS system is based on the principle of mutual trust and confidence between the participating higher education institutions. The few rules of ECTS, concerning Information (on courses available), Agreement (between the home and host institutions) and the Use of Credit Points (to indicate student workload) are set out to reinforce this mutual trust and confidence. Each ECTS department will describe the courses it offers not only in terms of content but also adding credits to each course.

 

WHY ECTS?

ECTS makes study programmes easy to read and compare for all students, local and foreign. ECTS facilitates mobility and academic recognition. ECTS helps universities to organise and revise their study programmes. ECTS can be used across a variety of programmes and modes of delivery. ECTS makes European higher education more attractive for students from other continents.

 

MAIN FEATURES OF ECTS

ECTS is based on the principle that 60 credits measure the workload of a full-time student during one academic year. In most cases the student workload for a full-time study programme in Europe amounts to around 1500-1800 hours per year and in those cases one credit corresponds to 25 to 30 working hours. Credits in ECTS can only be obtained after successful completion of the work required and appropriate assessment of the learning outcomes achieved. Learning outcomes are sets of competences, expressing what the student will know, understand or be able to do after completion of a process of learning, long or short. Student workload in ECTS consists of the time required to complete all planned learning activities such as attending lectures, seminars, independent study, preparation of projects, examinations, and so on.

Credits are allocated to all educational components of a study programme (such as modules, courses, placements, dissertation work, etc.) and reflect the quantity of work each component requires to achieve its specific objectives or learning outcomes in relation to the total quantity of work necessary to complete a full year of study successfully. The performance of the student is documented by a local/national grade. It is good practice to add an ECTS grade, especially in case of credit transfer. The ECTS grading scale ranks the students on a statistical basis. Grades are assigned among students with a pass grade as follows:

A best 10%

B next 25%

C next 30%

D next 25%

E next 10%

A distinction is made between the grades FX and F that are used for unsuccessful students. FX means: “fail- some more work required to pass” and F means: “fail – considerable further work required”.

The inclusion of failure rates in the Transcript of Records is optional.

Full academic recognition is a necessary condition for student mobility in the framework of the Socrates/Erasmus programme. Full academic recognition means that the study period abroad (including examinations or other forms of assessment) replaces a comparable period of study at the home university (including examinations or other forms of assessment), though the content of the agreed study programme may differ.

 

ECTS STUDENTS

The students participating in ECTS will receive full credit for all academic work successfully carried out at any of the ECTS partner institutions and they will be able to transfer these academic credits from one participating institution to another, on the basis of prior agreement between students and the institutions involved on the content of study programmes abroad. The learning agreement will be signed by the student 2 to 3 weeks after his/her arrival abroad to allow him/her to judge if the course chosen does in fact correspond to his/her expectations and his/her level of competence. Any changes in agreement between all parties must be made within this period. When the student has successfully completed the study programme previously agreed between the home and the host institutions and returns to the home institution, credit transfer will take place, and the student will continue the study course at the home institution without any loss of time or credit. If, on the other hand, the student decides to stay at the host institution and to take a degree there, he or she may have to adapt the study course due to the legal, institutional and departmental rules in the host country, institution and department.