European Credit Transfer System

1. What is ECTS?

ECTS, The European Community Credit Transfer System, was developed by the Commission of the European Communities 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.
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), the Agreement (between the home and host institutions) and the Use of Credit Points (to indicate 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 by stating the number of credits for each course.

2. ECTS Credits

ECTS credits are value allocated to course units to describe the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the quantity of work each course requires in relation to the total amount of work required to complete a full year of academic study at the institution, including lectures, practical work, seminars, private study -in the library or at home- and examinations or other assessment activities. Thus ECTS credits express a relative value.
In ECTS, 60 credits represent the workload of one year of study; normally 30 credits are given for a semester and 20 credits for a term. It is important that no special courses are set up for ECTS purposes, but that all ECTS courses are mainstream courses of the participating institutions, as followed by home students under normal regulations.
It is up to the participating institutions to subdivide the credits for the different courses. ECTS credits should be allocated to all the courses units available -compulsory or elective courses. Credits can also be allocated to project work, thesis and practical placements where these are a normal part of the study programme. Credits are awarded only when the course has been completed and all stipulated examinations have been successfully taken.