European Credit Transfer System

Analytic Quality Glossary

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Citation reference: Harvey, L., 2004–9, Analytic Quality Glossary, Quality Research International, http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/

This is a dynamic glossary and the author would welcome any e-mail suggestions for amendments or additions. Page updated 11 February, 2009

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European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)

core definition

ECTS is a system for recognising credit for learning and facilitating the movement of the recognised credits between institutions and across national borders.

explanatory context

analytical review

According to the Europa, Education and Training site (Europa, 2004)

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System is a student-centred system based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme, objectives preferably specified in terms of the learning outcomes and competences to be acquired.

The WENR site rewrites this in terms of student study abroad and notes that ECTS:

Establishes common procedures for recognizing studies completed abroad. The main goal of ECTS is to promote the exchange of academic information among European institutions of higher education in order to facilitate student mobility.

The UNESCO definition explores the origin and motive for ECTS and its role in the Bologna process. It states that ECTS is:

A European Community project initially established under the ERASMUS Programme (1988-1995). It was developed more broadly between 1995–1999 under the higher education component of the SOCRATES Programme, ERASMUS, and proved to be an effective tool for creating curricular transparency and facilitating academic recognition. The activity of ECTS is twofold: on the one hand, it guarantees academic recognition to students of studies completed abroad and furthermore enables studies abroad; on the other hand, it provides higher education institutions with curricular transparency by offering detailed information regarding the respective curricula and their relevance in terms of an earned degree and by enabling higher education institutions to preserve their autonomy and responsibility for all decisions regarding student achievement. The Bologna Declaration takes ECTS as the common framework for curriculum design and student mobility within the envisaged European Higher Education Area. (Vlãsceanu, et al., 2004, pp. 31–32)

AEC (2004) notes:

ECTS: Within the Bologna Declaration it is proposed that European higher education should be based on courses which are compatible with the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). ECTS is a tool for conversion between national education systems and is an important instrument in removing barriers to mobility. The two main elements of ECTS are a credit system and a grading scale. In the ECTS credit system, one year of full-time study corresponds to 60 credits. ECTS also offers a grading scale which can be used to convert grades awarded in one national system into the most closely corresponding grade in another system. The two elements, when used together, enable a student’s learning achievement in one institution to be recognised by another.

Stephen Adam (2004) points out that ECTS is evolving rapidly

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) has recently developed rapidly as a credit accumulation and transfer scheme at national level. It has moved from being a credit transfer system for recognising periods of study at foreign institutions to become a putative credit accumulation and transfer system that encompasses all learning and is not solely focused on overseas mobility. Its evolution has been accelerated by the Bologna process and the drive to find effective tools to help converge the structures of European higher education. Adam (2004, pp. 25–26)

associated issues

Notional learning time

Adam (2004, p. 7) argues that:

Inevitably, as ECTS moves from a limited credit transfer, to a full credit accumulation and transfer, instrument that links VET and HE in a framework for lifelong learning within the over-arching European Qualifications framework, it is moving towards a definition in terms of ‘notional learning time to achieve specified learning outcomes’. Credits are a powerful way to quantify learning achievement in different contexts (VET, lifelong learning as well as higher education). However, ECTS credits are not currently linked to levels and consequently they suffer from being rather crude instruments as they cannot delineate progression or indicate anything about the nature of learning. It is only when credits are linked to level and learning outcomes (learning outcomes are used to define credits) do they reach their full potential.

related terms