ECTS CREDIT ALLOCATION

ECTS is the credit system for higher education used in the European Higher Education Area, involving all countries engaged in the Bologna Process. ECTS is one of the cornerstones of the Bologna process.

ECTS is a learner-centred system for credit accumulation and transfer based on the transparency of learning outcomes and learning processes. It aims to facilitate planning, delivery, evaluation, recognition and validation of qualifications and units of learning as well as student mobility.

ECTS credits are based on the workload students need in order to achieve expected learning outcomes. Learning outcomes describe what a learner is expected to know, understand and be able to do after successful completion of a process of learning. They relate to level descriptors in national and European qualifications frameworks. Workload indicates the time students typically need to complete all learning activities (such as lectures, seminars, projects, practical work, self-study and examinations) required to achieve the expected learning outcomes.

60 ECTS credits are attached to the workload of a fulltime year of formal learning (academic year) and the associated learning outcomes. In most cases, student workload ranges from 1,500 to 1,800 hours for an academic year, whereby one credit corresponds to 25 to 30 hours of work. The number of credits ascribed to each component is based on its weight in terms of the workload students need in order to achieve the learning outcomes in a formal context. Credits are awarded to individual students (full-time or part-time) after completion of the learning activities required by a formal programme of study or by a single educational component and the successful assessment of the achieved learning outcomes.

ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) has been applied at ADU for student mobility since the beginning of the Erasmus Program at ADU in the Academic Year 2004-2005 beside the local credit system. All courses offered in the Higher Education Institution have been allocated ECTS Credits beside their local ones, and they are also regularly updated by the course providers in accordance with the curriculum changes.

As of the Academic Year 2013-2014, the ECTS shall completely replace the local credit system starting from the students to register at ADU for the first time. 25 hours of students' course related activities have been accepted to equal to 1 ECTS credit, according to which the institutional ECTS studies have been structured.