Sheikh Seraj

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European Credit System ECTS

November 11, 2020

European Credit System ECTS

The term ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer and accumulation System. It is an academic credit system that performs on the basis of the student workload. Every student wishes to achieve some objectives and to learning outcomes of the module or program of the study. ECTS bridges the gap as it is designed to offer academic recognition for the study time. It further facilitates students with mobility and credit accumulation as well as transfer.

For higher education across Europe, the ECTS credit system is highly recommended to the students.

What are the benefits of ECTS for the students?

ECTS provides better transparency and compatibility to the students across many European Union countries. Here is the list of ultimate benefits of ECTS for the students –
  • Once your studies find the required recognition in the European countries, you can easily get the job in these countries.
  • ECTS is proved very helpful if you want to take a Bachelor's degree and Master’s degree from the two different countries in Europe.
  • The overall academic paperwork gets easier and quicker.
  • If you are taking a joint-degree, semester abroad, or an Erasmus study experience, your home university can easily take track of the study hour’s credit transfers.
  • It helps you to estimate the complexity of class, seminars, internships, and thesis, etc. The criterion is based on the number of credits on the completion of the required course.
  • ECTS mitigate the efforts of balancing between the international and local students in the universities.
  • Irrespective of the academic discipline you are pursuing, your degree will have the same number of credits.
  • If you are drop out of a course, ECTS is truly a savior. ECTS credits help the students to render the academic achievements by saving you from taking the same course once again to complete.

Which are the European countries using the ECTS credit system used?

Here is the list of European countries, which are using the ECTS credit system used –

  • United Kingdom
  • Netherland
  • Germany
  • France
  • Sweden
  • Ireland
  • Spain

How can we calculate ECTS credits?

Every course unit is different and thus, it seeks a different level of concentration from the students. ECTS credits help the students to understand the courses and the quantity of work required to complete them. These are the values allotted to each course to express the required efforts, somehow, to complete the course in one academic year. An academic course includes lectures, classes, practical, seminars, practicals, examinations, laboratory, library, and home studies. Students are awarded the ECTS credit points to represent the amount of workload, the students have gone through.

Here is a sneak peek into the ECTS credits assigned on the basis of degree type –

  • 60 ECTS credits are considered for the full academic year. According to the same, 30 ECTS, credits are assigned for a semester whereas 20 ECTS credits are given for a trimester.
  • Since a Bachelor's program includes three years, a total of 180 ECTS credits are assigned to the same.
  • Since a Master’s program includes three years, a total of 120 ECTS credits are assigned to the same.
  • If practical placements and thesis preparation act as a part of the regular program of studies at school as well as home, the ECTS credits become crucial for them. In the ECTS credit system, one ECTS is considered equal to the 30 study hours of workload, which is followed by Germany, Romania, and Hungary.

What is the ECTS grading system scale?

The ECTS grading system is basically the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System scale, which is designed to facilitate the transfer of academic results. Whether it is about examinations or assessment systems, ECTS helps to represent them in the form of grades. ECTS grading system is acceptable in many universities of European Countries. European Higher Education Area accepts ECTS to allow the conversion of the grades from one European country to another.

GradeCumulative
Definition
A10Brilliant (but with minor errors)
B35Moderate (above average with some errors)
C65General (well but with notable errors)
D90Fair (but with significant errors)
E~100The minimum criteria for the performance
FX
Fail (but more work is required to present it again for the credit award)
F
Fail (It can be considered but after further works)

Can non-ECTS be converted into ECTS credits?

  • First of all, if your bachelor’s college has already adapted the ECTS (or equivalent credit system), nothing is here to worry. You are free to enter the credit details into your ECTS form. In this way, you will need to ensure whether the credits you are entering is equivalent to the required details or not.
  • The universities or colleges may use different credit systems and to balance them well, you will need to check whether they are equivalent or not. If your college assigns 1 credit (or 1 CP) for every 25 hours of time spent on a subject, it will go different from ECTS. That credit will be lesser and with the exact calculation of this case, 1 CP will represent 0.83 ECTS.
  • Now, if your college doesn’t provide the number of hours per subject with more details, you need to perform the different calculations in the absence of Credit Points.
  • Take one subject of your course and consider its details. From the number of hours to lectures per week, you need to collect many more details of the complete semester before your bachelor’s degree gets completed.
  • For that particular subject, we can understand the entire calculation of credit points with one example.
  • Assume if a subject takes 4 hours lecture in a week along with the 4 other hours for assignments, homework, and self-study, the calculation is here with 4 months in a semester and 16 weeks per semester –
  • 64 hours (classes) + 64 hours (Assignments and study hours) = 128 Hours

The formula is here

  • Number of hours per week x number of weeks per semester = Total hours
  • European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is expressed as
  • 1 ECTS credit point = 30 study hours
  • The next step is to divide the total number of hours by ECTS hours.
  • A similar process works for practical labs and workshops.
  • Finally, divide the total number of hours by ECTS hours.
The similar goes for all the courses.

The ECTS Credits Calculator

By keeping all the constraints in mind, there is a need for a simple ECTS Credits Calculator that performs meticulously with the unerring calculation performance.


Thanks for Reading
-Sheikh Seraj