The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)

The European harmonisation of further education has dramatically influenced the system we have known in Belgium since the 19th century. In a few years of time, the European Ministers of Further Education have contrived an ambitious project for higher education: to offer students a new kind of mobility inside Europe and allow them to carry out part or all of their studies abroad.

In that context, the exchange of students raises the problem of the academic equivalence of courses followed abroad. It turned out that a new methodology had to be built up in order to ensure the transparency of the curricula and favour academic mobility and life-long learning.

Definition

With a numeric value attached to each course unit, The ECTS credits represent the workload a student is supposed to devote to each of these units. They express in a relative way the amount of work each unit requires proportionally to the global volume of work which is necessary to pass a complete year of study in the institution.

Aim

To improve the visibility of academic achievements and understand more clearly the studies carried out in Europe so that students can complete their curriculum in several European institutions. Each credit remains valid for five years all over Europe. The volume of work of one academic year is 60 ECTS.