How many ects equal us credits

Credits for lectures from different institutions can be accumulated or added up towards one degree or qualification, allowing for much more flexibility. ECTS points only indicate workload; they do not indicate a grade. Generally, each year of full-time study or work, where applicable is worth 60 ECTS credits.

Usually this is divided by modules. So, for example, you might have 4 modules in a year with a similar workload, each of them worth 15 ECTS credits and thus adding up to 60 ECTS for the whole year.

A year of full-time studies at university level is generally worth 60 ECTS credits, and defined as equal to 1, - 1, hours of study work. The exact number of hours is different from country to country. A few examples:. Of course, these values are just a guide. If you study part-time, the number of ECTS per semester or year will also be lower, reflecting the reduced workload. If you are only signing up for 20 ECTS worth of lectures in a given semester, you will probably have lots of free time, while more than 30 ECTS will mean you might not see much of your friends.

ECTS credit points indicate the workload associated with a study module, or number of modules. The great thing about ECTS credits is their versatility: They are used by and accepted by effectively all European universities - and also by many other institutions around the world.

Perhaps your first university is not quite what you were looking for, or perhaps you want to switch to a subject not offered at your institution. The ECTS framework make this easy, because the credit points show institutions exactly how far someone has got in their studies.

This means students can more easily transfer between European universities. This way, students coming to Europe just for e. And the same is true for students returning from a semester or year studying abroad. Your home university can easily confirm and accept the credit points of modules you completed during your exchange semester.

Find Masters programmes in Europe. Therefore, PhD application requirements may include that students have a certain amount of ECTS credit points in a certain subject area. For example, students who want to work for a PhD in Engineering may have to prove competency in practical areas, even if their topic is theoretical. Find PhD programmes in Europe. The grading scheme is another important part of ECTS.

The table below shows which grade was awarded based on the performance percentile compared to the whole class:. The ECTS grading scale was relative; this meant that the same performance could theoretically result in different ECTS grades in different years or classes. Because most grading systems at universities in Europe follow a fixed scale, grades had to be converted at the end of a class or study programme.

Understanding what academic credits mean can be confusing because of the many different systems that are used. Even though credits should be comparable to workload expressed in hours, it can sometimes be hard to do because these are rough estimates and depend on individuals. A US Credit generally consist of a weekly workload of one hour in class and two hours outside of class for the duration of one semester.

This means the total workload for one US Credit is in general between 45 and 50 hours, of which a minimum of 15 contact hours. In many places not one system is used. Given that these systems differ between universities, comparing them to other credit systems has to be done on a single basis.