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What the ECTS is

ECTS, the European Credit Transfer System, was developed by the European Commission to provide common procedures to guarantee the full transferability of credits for university studies abroad so that they might count towards a final qualification in the home country. It provides a way of measuring and comparing academic merits and transferring them from one institution to another.

ECTS makes study programmes easy to read and compare. It can be used for all types of programmes, whatever their mode of delivery, and for lifelong learning purposes. It serves both mobile and non-mobile students: it can be used for accumulation within an institution and transfer between institutions. For these reasons the well-known acronym “ECTS” now stands for “European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System”.

The ECTS is a student-centred system based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme of study. These objectives should preferably be specified in terms of learning outcomes and competencies to be acquired. It is based on the principle that 60 credits measure the workload of a full-time student during one academic year, 30 credits for a study semester and 20 credits for a study trimester. The student workload of a full-time study programme in Europe amounts in most cases to around 1500-1800 hours per year and in those cases, one credit stands for around 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 competencies, 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 and private study, preparation of projects, examinations, and so forth. 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 to the total quantity of work necessary to complete a full year of study successfully. The ECTS is based on three core elements: information (about study programmes and students’ academic records), mutual agreement (between the partner institutions and the students) and the use of ECTS credits (quantified students’ workload). These three core elements are translated into three key features:

  • ECTS credits represent the "quantified means of expressing the volume of learning based on the workload students need to achieve the expected outcomes of a learning process at a specific level" Source: ECTS Users' Guide;
  • the Information Package includes all the useful information for student and staff about the Institutions, school/Departments, about educational programmes and components;
  • The Learning Agreement for studies/traineeships describes in detail the programme of study (exams, work thesis, practical work, placement, etc.) that the student is going to attend abroad, with the corresponding ECTS credits, awarded if the educational component will be successfully completed at the end of the period abroad;
  • Transcript of Records/Traineeship certificate certifies the work completed, the credits awarded and the local grades received during the mobility period.

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