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The ECTS (European Credit Transfer and
Accumulation System) has been developed by the European
Union Commission in order to ensure the academic acknowledgement of
studies done in a foreign country. This system allows to measure and
compare the academic results achieved in different institutions and to
transfer them from one institution to another. It is therefore easier for
students to change school and to acquire credits in their institution of
origin or abroad.
The ECTS rests on
the principle that a student’s work for one year corresponds to 60
credits. The average amount of time of a student enrolled in a full-time
programme in Europe is around 1500-1800 hours a year; one credit therefore
corresponds to 25 to 30 working hours.
The ECTS credits
can only be awarded after the full achievement of a work, and after the
appropriate evaluation of the training results. These results correspond
to a whole set of competences defining what the student will know,
understand or be able to do after the end of his training, whatever its
duration.
The student’s
workload includes all the time necessary to attend all the educational
activities, like the courses, possible seminars, individual and personal
study, preparation and sitting of exams, preparation of projects,
etc.
Credits are awarded
for all components of a study programme (courses, internships, theses,
dissertations, workshops, etc), according to the amount of work required
by each activity to achieve its specific goals in relation with the total
amount of work necessary to achieve a whole year of
study. |
The student’s
results are evaluated by a local or national grade. An example to enforce
this system is usually to add an ECTS grade, especially in cases of
transfer of credits. This grading system ranks the students’ results
according to the whole class’s; it is therefore important to note that the
ECTS grade is not a mark but a rank. The ECTS grades are given to the
successful students according to the following
order:
Definition of the ECTS
Grades
|
Best 10 %
students |
A |
|
The following
25 % |
B |
|
The following
30 % |
C |
|
The following
25 % |
D |
|
The last 10
% |
E |
There is a
distinction between the grades FX and F used for the students who have not
achieved the objectives: FX means « Fail – a complementary work is
necessary to succede » and F means « Fail – a lot of work is
required ».
The mention of the
failure rate in the transcript of records is
optional |
