WHAT IS THE ECTS CREDIT SYSTEM
ECTS, the European Credit Transfer System, was developed by the Commission of the European Communities in order to provide common procedures to guarantee academic recognition of studies abroad. It provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements, and transferring them from one institution to another. The ECTS system is based on the principle of mutual trust and confidence between the participating higher education institutions. The few rules of ECTS concerning information (on courses available), agreement (between the home and the host institutions) and the use of credit points (to indicate student work-load) are set outto reinforce this mutualtrust and confidence.
ECTS does not regulate the contents, structure or equivalence of study programs. The credits are simply a value allocated to course units, as a means of describing the workload required forcompletingthe course.
ECTS credits
ECTS credits are a numerical value (between land 60) allocated to course units to describe the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the quantity of work each course requires in relation to the total quantity of work required to complete a full year of practical work, seminars, private work (in the library or at home), and examination or other assessment activities. ECTS credits express a relative value.
In ECTS, 60 credits represent the workload of a year of study; normally 30 credits are given fora semester and 20 credits for a term. It is important that no special courses are set up for ECTS purposes, but that all ECTS courses are mainstream courses of the participating institutions, as followed by home students under normal regulations.
It is up to the participating institutions to subdivide the credits for the different courses. In the Technical University of Varna 240 credit points are required for a Bachelor’s degree, equivalent to four years of study.
Hence, 60 credit points represent a full year of study. Credits are awarded only upon completion of the course and when all required examinations have been passed successfully. Credit points are rounded to the higher digit when they represent decimals.
ECTS grading scale
The scale of ECTS qualifications is a relative scale that aims to make the credit system clearer without, interfering in the qualification systems of other institutions. This scale consists of combined use of key words and suitable numeric definitions. Following the chart below, these words and definitions specify the individual accomplishments of each student and provide a framework to compare these with the results of other classmates.
ECTS students
The students participating in ECTS will receive full credit for all academic work successfully carried out at any of the ECTS partner institutions. They will be able to transfer these academic credits from one participating institution to another, on the bases of prior agreement on the content of study programs abroad between students and the institutions involved when the student has successfully completed the courses previously agreed between the home and the host institutions and returns to the home institution.
Credit transfer will take place, and the student will continue the study program at the home institution without any loss of time or credit.
Students selected by each institution to participate in ECTS may only be awarded a student mobility grant if they fulfill the general conditions of eligibility for the Erasmus grant.