WHAT IS ECTS?
ECTS stands for the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System. It is a student-centred system for the accumulation and transfer of academic credits.
ECTS aims to make higher education programmes more transparent and comparable, facilitate the documentation of learning activities completed by students at different higher education institutions, and support the recognition of their academic studies.
ECTS credits are allocated by considering both the learning outcomes that a student is expected to achieve through a course or academic activity and the total workload required to achieve those outcomes.
ECTS Credits and Student Workload
An ECTS credit is a numerical value representing the total amount of work a student is expected to complete in order to successfully fulfil the requirements of a course or academic activity.
When calculating student workload, not only contact hours but also the following activities are taken into account:
- Lectures and practical sessions,
- Laboratory work,
- Seminars and fieldwork,
- Independent study,
- Assignments and projects,
- Traineeships and practical activities,
- Examination preparation,
- Theses and other academic activities.
ECTS credits may be allocated to compulsory and elective courses, as well as projects, theses, traineeships, practical activities and similar academic work.
According to the ECTS system:
- 60 ECTS credits correspond to the workload of one full-time academic year.
- In a standard academic structure consisting of two semesters, 30 ECTS credits correspond to the workload of one semester.
The student workload for one academic year is generally considered to be between 1,500 and 1,800 hours. Accordingly, one ECTS credit usually represents approximately 25–30 hours of student workload.
Key Elements of the ECTS System
The ECTS system is based on the following key elements:
- Clearly and transparently defining academic programmes and course content,
- Identifying the learning outcomes of each course,
- Calculating the workload required for students to achieve the learning outcomes,
- Allocating ECTS credits to academic activities,
- Using earned credits for accumulation, transfer and academic recognition,
- Recording students’ academic activities through the relevant documents.
ECTS is based on the student learning process and workload and supports transparency and academic mobility among higher education institutions.
Key Documents Used within the ECTS Framework
Institutional Information Package and Course Catalogue
The Institutional Information Package and Course Catalogue provide information about the university’s academic structure, faculties, departments, study programmes, course content, learning outcomes, teaching and assessment methods, and the ECTS credits allocated to courses.
The Course Catalogue helps students review the courses available before their mobility and prepare their Learning Agreements.
Learning Agreement
The Learning Agreement specifies the courses that the student will take at the host institution during the mobility period and the ECTS credits allocated to those courses.
The document must be approved by the student, the sending higher education institution and the receiving higher education institution before the mobility begins. The purpose of the Learning Agreement is to establish, in a transparent manner before the mobility, the arrangements for recognising academic activities successfully completed abroad.
Transcript of Records
The Transcript of Records is an official document showing the courses taken by the student, the credits awarded for those courses and the grades obtained.
The Transcript of Records issued by the host institution at the end of the mobility is used to document the academic activities successfully completed by the student, the credits earned and the grades obtained, and to carry out the academic recognition process.
Academic Recognition
ECTS does not, by itself, determine course content or the equivalence of courses offered by different higher education institutions.
Academic activities approved in the Learning Agreement before the mobility and successfully completed and documented through the Transcript of Records after the mobility are evaluated by the relevant academic units of Ankara Science University within the scope of academic recognition procedures.
The following are taken into account during the academic recognition process:
- The Learning Agreement,
- The Transcript of Records,
- Course content and learning outcomes,
- ECTS credits,
- Decisions of the relevant academic unit.
The Erasmus+ Learning Agreement is prepared and approved by the relevant parties before the mobility in order to ensure the recognition of academic activities successfully completed abroad.